{"id":245,"date":"2016-04-13T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=245"},"modified":"2016-04-13T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:00:46","slug":"remain-in-my-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Remain in My Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain<\/strong> in my love.\u201d (John 15:9)<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

I feel it happening again – the temptation to take charge and handle the challenge myself. I try to trust God, but it seems to be \u2018all up to me\u2019<\/em>; a familiar lie. The internal pressure is mounting. I\u2019m compelled to think I must uphold and maintain God\u2019s love for me and the infusion of His strength. I feel the vulnerability of moving out from under the wings of His love into independent striving for achievement and approval.<\/p>\n

Knowing I need truth, I turn to John 15. Here, Christ repeatedly tells me to abide in him and in his love. But how?<\/p>\n

Digging into the word abide, I learn it also means to tarry, to dwell, be present with, to remain. I\u2019m to remain in God\u2019s Love. Jesus tells me that He loves me just as much as His Father loves Him. I want to believe this, but I struggle.<\/p>\n

Remain. To remain somewhere means I have to be there to begin with. If I\u2019m told to remain in a house, I have to already be in the house to stay there. I remember I Corinthians 1:30 where Paul says that because of God, I\u2019m in Christ Jesus. He also says that it is by grace I have been saved, through faith; not a matter of my own works.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is Finished<\/h4>\n

God put me in Christ Jesus, not my own striving or achieving. When Christ said, \u201cIt is finished\u201d on the cross, he finished all work needed to earn God\u2019s pleasure. I don\u2019t have to do a thing to be in his love. By believing, I\u2019m already in the dwelling of Christ\u2019s love. I\u2019m to stay where God has put me.<\/p>\n

This is extremely freeing.<\/p>\n

Remain in Christ\u2019s love. Don\u2019t move.<\/p>\n

Back in John 15, I read I\u2019m like a branch of grapes. Connected to the vine, my source, God grows delicious fruit for others to enjoy. When He produces the fruit and others benefit, He gets the glory and I\u2019m filled with His joy. It\u2019s the only way it can work. A branch detached from the vine can yield nothing.<\/p>\n

So, what is my work? After all, Jesus commands me to abide. My work is to stay where God has placed me, in the love of Christ. I\u2019m to rest and yield to His life in me, fighting every lie with the truth of His amazing love.<\/p>\n

Lord, I\u2019m guilty of doubting your love, of thinking I have to achieve something for you to be pleased with me. Now I see how absurd this really is. Not only are my independent efforts worth nothing, but they produce the plastic fruits of self-glory. \u00a0I\u2019m so sorry. Please keep me ever aware of your great love for me. Teach me how to remain where you have put me, in your surpassing love.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ephesians 2:8-9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAs the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.\u201d (John 15:9) I feel it happening again – the temptation to take charge and handle the challenge myself. I try to trust God, but it seems to be \u2018all up to me\u2019; a familiar lie. The internal pressure is … Continue reading Remain in My Love<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[41,43,47,48,45,44,42,46,50,49],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love","tag-abide","tag-christs-love","tag-fruit","tag-grace","tag-it-is-finished","tag-john-15","tag-remain","tag-rest","tag-the-vine","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}