If I made a list of my favorite words, abide would be in the top ten. It’s a strange thing to say because I never use that word in my everyday speech and I almost never come across it in anything I read either. In fact I only ever remember one person using that word – Jesus. Stranger yet is that most of the Bible versions I use have replaced the word abide with the word remain. I don’t typically use the NKJV version but the words of Jesus in John 15:5 of that version speak so deeply to me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

The word abide means to remain or stay close to. I stay close to a lot of things…..my family, the person holding the umbrella in a rainstorm, my lane when driving, a good friend, my water bottle on a hot day, etc. I only abide with Jesus. Is there a difference? Most assuredly. Abiding with Jesus is much more than just staying close to Him. We can stay close to Jesus by going to church, praying each day, doing a devotional, listening to worship music. That is a great place to start but too many people make Jesus a “part of their life” by those practices and stop short of what Jesus is talking about in John 15.

In John 15:5 Jesus says “abide in Me”. That tiny word “in” is a transformative word. Instead of making Jesus a part of our life He is inviting us to be inside of Him. Do you see the difference? To abide, to be in Him, means that we are totally surrounded and filled with Him. We are never alone and everything we do involves Him and is filtered through Him. When I abide in Jesus, it is the only time I don’t have to strive for something. I don’t have to try to earn attention, value, or meaning because I already have it. Think about it….all of our day in the world is spent trying to earn something. It could be respect, a paycheck, redemption, meaning, acceptance, etc. Even in our Christian faith we spend most of our time trying to earn those things. It is an ongoing and disheartening cycle.

My moments of peace and satisfaction have always come when I abide in Jesus because I have access to all He is because I am “in” Him. I’m not searching for a rare pearl; I am in the rare pearl and while I am in the rare pearl I am saturated with the knowledge that I am seen by the Father as a rare pearl too.

I wish I could tell you that I abide in Him constantly. It is where I want to be but as is the case with all of us, flesh and spirit battle within me and I get drawn back into the world often and let my own insecurities and the opinions of others guide my steps. It is a process and journey for all of us. No matter how far we walk in our relationship with Jesus, there will always be so much more that He offers. You can invite Jesus to be a part of your life; you can invite Jesus into all of your life; or you can live your life inside of Him.

Abide. It’s a really great word.