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"The great danger facing all of us . . . is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning at all--not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God--and be content to have it so--that is the danger. That some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with the husks and trappings of life--and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. This is what one prays one's friends may be spared--satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle and thrill which comes from a friendship with the Father."

--Phillips Brooks,  Disciplines for the Inner Life

Day 30 of Abiding: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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It's a relationship

I read this blog post today and it made me think. We are all created unique, and we don't all approach God in the same way. We are all in different stages in our lives, and sometimes our walk with God takes different forms. 

For the past 29 days I have been writing about the importance of time with God. As I have reflected on what it means to abide in Christ, I have become convinced that the only way to abide well is to be with Him. Constantly. This means being in His word. It means praying. 

But not all of us can have dates with God like Abby did, even if we wanted to (I do!). I do think dates with God are an amazing way to be with Him. But as Diana says on her blog, "All of the ways we choose to worship our God are lovely to Him. As long as our hearts long to spend time with Him and seek Him out, I don’t think God keeps a scoreboard of who did what on what day."

She is so right in pointing out that a relationship is personal and unique. We don't (or shouldn't) compare our relationships with our husbands or kids with other people's--they are uniquely our own. So what if you don't get up at 6:00 and spend an hour praying? You might pray all day long in the quiet of your own heart. You might have a wonderful walk in the evening before dinner or a quiet few moments in the car on your way to work.

The point is that you are with Him. Consciously, deliberately, choosing Him above the other clamoring voices in your life. For many of us (like me), that can't happen very well unless I start my day with Him, just the two of us alone. But when that doesn't happen, can I still spend the day with Him, abiding in Him throughout the day? Of course. 

It is still a choice. But it isn't a formula. It's a beautiful, love-filled relationship, and your unique approach to Him will delight Him far more than your attempt to keep "the rules."

You can sing His word all day long in your car. You can pray while you are washing dishes. You can journal letters to Him. You can write down one verse and carry it with you throughout the day. You can dance or play your guitar or teach or change diapers or sit at your desk with Him.

The beauty of true abiding is its dailyness. The more we practice it, the more ordinary it becomes. But it is never dull. 

And I still say: the more time we spend with Him, the better we know Him, and the more like Him we become.

“However strong the branch becomes, however far away it reaches round the home, out of sight of the vine, all its beauty and all its fruitfulness ever depend upon that one point of contact where it grows out of the vine. So be it with us too.”

― Andrew Murray, Holy in Christ

Day 29 of Abiding: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Four good reasons to prune your vines

As we have seen, a Gardner who cares about his vines is committed to caring for them well. Pruning is an essential step for growing vines that bear fruit. Regular pruning keeps your vines healthy, productive, attractive, and under control.

Don't be afraid that you will hurt your vine by pruning it. You are not doing it any favors by letting it grow unchecked. An unpruned vine will become less and less productive and attractive over time. The right kind of pruning will only help your vine and ensure that it consistently produces abundant fruit.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

A Gardner who prunes well will do the following:


1. Remove dead, damaged, diseased, or unproductive stems. Removing the diseased or unfruitful stems will keep the other stems healthy and encourage new growth.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body" (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

2. Remove overly tangled stems. If you do not care for the growth of your stems, they can become a tangled mess that will then become an unmanageable mass. Reducing a vine's mass will encourage new growth but also allow light and air to reach the plant's interior.

"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). 

"In God I trust and am not afraid . . . For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life" (Psalm 56:11, 13).

3. Remove errant stems that grow away from the support. Vines must make their way up in the world by clinging to or twining around a support. Some stems have minds of their own and appear determined to grow away from the support you have provided for it. These vines must be trained by pruning.

"The Lord was my support . . . He delivered me because he delighted in me" (Psalm 18:18-19). 

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:7, 10-11).

4. Direct its growth. Vines must also be guided to grow upward. Cut a bud or stem that is pointing in the direction you want the vine to go.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you" (Psalm 32:8). 

"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him" (James 1:12).

Far from harming your plant, the right kind of pruning will help your vine to thrive and yield more fruit every year.

 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Related: How to know a good vinedresser

Day 28 of Abiding: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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No matter what

"The Lord's love does not fail however much we fail him. Peter had built his whole relationship with Jesus Christ on his assumed capacity to be adequate. That's why he took his denial of the Lord so hard. His strength, loyalty, and faithfulness were his self-generated assets of discipleship. The fallacy in Peter's mind was this: he believed his relationship was dependent on his consistency in producing the qualities he thought had earned him the Lord's approval.  

"Many of us face the same problem. We project onto the Lord our own measured standard of acceptance. Our whole understanding of him is based in a quid pro quo of bartered love. He will love us as if we are good, moral, and diligent. But we have turned the tables; we try to live so that he will love us, rather than living because he has already loved us." 

--Lloyd Ogilvie,  Ask Him Anything

Yes. This is it. 

Admit it. There are days when you get it all right. You love well and work well. You smile all day and say all the right things, and you think, I've got it. And you can imagine God smiling down upon you in Fatherly approval. 

Those are good days. But then there are the days when it all goes wrong right from the start. The days you wish you could take back, the words you regret the moment they leave your lips. And if you are like me, you go to bed heavy-hearted, promising, I'll do better tomorrow. 

Do we really believe that God loves us as much on the bad days as the good ones? Or do we try to live so that He will love us?

I want to live, really live, because He has already loved me. Because His love surrounds and fills me always. No matter what. 

I think if we really believed that, we would live so much larger, so much greater, with so much more joy. Because we are already securely loved, valued, wanted, redeemed. 

No matter what.

Day 27 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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When you want to know who you really are

"He is the one who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. It is an identity we can't discover for ourselves, that others can't discover in us--the mystery of who we really are. How we have chased around the world for answers to that riddle, looked in the eyes of others for some hint, some clue, hunted in the multiple worlds of pleasure and experience and self-fulfillment for some glimpse, some revelation, some wisdom, some authority to tell us our right name and our true destination. 

"But there was, and is, only One who can tell us this: the Lord himself. And he wants to tell us, he has made us to know our reason for being and to be led by it. But it is a secret he will entrust to us only when we ask, and then in his own way and in his own time. He will whisper it to us not in the mad rush and fever of our striving and our fierce determination to be someone, but rather when we are content to rest in him, to put ourselves into his keeping, into his hands. Most delightfully of all, it is a secret he will tell us slowly and sweetly, when we are willing to spend time with him; time with him who is beyond all time."

--Emilie Griffin, Clinging--The Experience of Prayer

This is what abiding does, if we stay with Him and do not wander away as we are so prone to do. All the questions, all the wondering about who we really are, all the answers to all the mysteries are found in Him.

He knows our true name. He understands the deep longings, the secrets written within us that we feel no one will ever comprehend. In Him we become our true selves, who we were meant to be. 

But discovering ourselves in Him is a journey and a choice. He waits for us, but He does not force the way. We are free to come or not. 

But until we do, we will never really know ourselves.

Day 26 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Faces unveiled

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.  

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

The more we still ourselves in Him, the more perfectly we reflect His glory.

A stormy heart, like a stormy sea, bends and distorts the light it receives. A stormy heart refracts, sending its light off in all directions. 

A still heart reflects, in mirror image pointing back to its source. And when our source is Him, it is always light, even through clouds. And sometimes the cloudy days unveil the most beauty.

Day 25 of Abiding: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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The way to abide, part 4

5:30 a.m. I stand in the quiet street under bright stars, thinking how

long it has been since I took the time to come outside when the stars are out. It is that in-between time when the world holds its breath, full of the mystery of being. The new day seems perfect still, full of promise. I want to just lie down right in the middle of the street and watch those stars till the sun comes up. I want to stay out here and tell the women waiting for me that I don't really feel up to praying today, that I have lugged my weary woes along and I can feel them bubbling up inside like soda when you shake it--ready to explode.

That's what happens when you isolate yourself, push it all down deep and paste the smile on. You don't have to be physically alone to be lonely. All those fears and resentments just waiting till you get shaken. 

I head inside like a good girl where I am welcomed by the smell of hot coffee and the glow from the fireplace. Conversation is hushed as we gather. I sit quietly, trying to quiet my heart. 

The room stills, and one by one women begin to offer up their quiet prayers. Their prayers are for our children, our husbands, our leaders, the suffering and mourning and broken among us. They cry out for people who will never know we gathered here this morning. And the tears choke my heart as God cracks it open ever so gently and releases my self-pity, bit by bit. 

Suddenly I can hardly breathe for the presence of the Spirit. I want to get up and run, for I'm on holy ground and how could I forget this? This place that is so right, so dangerous, and yet so secure. 

I cannot speak. My lips are unclean, and my heart and my head and my feet and all of me, and I want to hide and yet stay forever here, in this place where God is.

I have forgotten what it is to pray like this. These women, letting go of self, standing on the front lines at 5:30 a.m. while their families sleep. This is what He meant by abiding, us together, letting His words and His love fill us. He said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). 

His words could not abide in me when I was so full of myself. But these friends, this community of sisters, bring me back to Him. And they speak His own words, claiming His promises. This is why He wants us to know His words. They are life, they are power, they are The Way Back. 

When His words abide in us, His desires become our desires, and we pray His own heart right back to Him. But He asks us to approach Him together. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20).

We need each other. We were not meant to do this alone. 

He made sure His disciples had each other. He made them a family. Yes, solitude with God is important too, as Jesus often showed us. But when we stay in isolation, we miss the joy of community. We are each uniquely made in His image, and we reflect Him in different ways. And together we are glorious. We bear each other up. We remember. We become part of something so much bigger than ourselves, a language and a song stretching throughout time and rising upward to Him in endless beauty.

6:30 a.m. I walk out into a world awakening. The sun has not quite peeked over the eastern mountain, but the sky blushes with this glorious joyful splendor. The western mountains stand as black silhouettes, and I can almost hear them singing. 

Day 24 of Abiding: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Counting the cost?

This morning, sitting safely in the coffee shop not thinking about or looking at the messes at home, I am laughing at myself for yesterday's post. We moms know that no one could ever afford to pay us for all the things we do for free. I mean, we are pretty great. (If you don't think so, just check out this awesome video and be reminded.)

(I don't mean to exclude the non-moms out there. This lesson is for all of us who want to be a blessing.)

Of course, the people we bless day after day also have to keep putting up with us. Enough said.

What if we did get paid for the hundred things we do in a day? Would we be happier? Is that why we do them? (No, of course not.) What if we could pay someone else to do them for us? (Um, yes please? At least once in awhile?)

Yesterday I rather blithely pointed out that I am a maid following in the footsteps of the servant Christ. Today when I re-read those words, I was aghast. 

How could I compare my little daily chores with what Christ has done for me?

And if I had to pay Him for His services? For all the things He has done, keeps doing, moment after moment through all eternity?

"If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm 130:3) 

He went beyond serving us for free. He paid to serve us.

"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh . . ." (Romans 8:3).

Why did He come to live among us, walk in our messes just like us, go about the mundane and ordinary task of living, if not to show us a better way? Yes, He performed the ultimate sacrifice of dying for our sins. But He lived among them first, taking care of His fleshly needs just like the rest of us. He didn't come just to give us a ticket to heaven. He came to teach us how to live. And His death was the final act of a life poured out in service.

I'm amazed to think He counted it worth the cost to gain my love.

Can I really sulk over laundry piles when He's holding out these scarred hands, asking for nothing but my love? How can I tally up my "services" when I have been set free from a debt I could never hope to pay?

And this abiding, this learning to know Him, it confronts us again and again with our helpless need for Him and His joyful response. He holds nothing back.

It is ALL joy to Him because He does all for us.

Everything else is rubbish.

And this is what He wants us to know: The more  we know Him, the less we need anything else.

The more we know Him, the more everything else looks like rubbish.

What are we pressing toward? A clean house? Perfect kids? The lie that we have it all together?

Or do we "forget those things which are behind and reach forward to those things which are ahead" (Philippians 3)?

The call is upward. The prize is in Him. But the way to get there is often found in making sacred spaces in our daily mess.

"No less a saint than Therese of Lisieux admitted in her Story of a Soul that Christ was most abundantly present to her not 'during my hours of prayer . . . but rather in the midst of my daily occupations...' 

"Seen in this light . . . the ludicrous attention to detail in the book of Leviticus, involving God in the minutiae of daily life--all the cooking and cleaning of a people's domestic life--might be revisioned as the very love of God. A God who cares so much as to desire to be present in everything we do." 

--Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work"

We really could do this. We could learn to count all things loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. We could make even folding laundry a holy moment, a place for Christ to enter in and speak to us. And then we could be filled up with His love, and it would overflow into the lives around us. 

Today is my grandmother's 96th birthday. She's spending it with Jesus. I remember watching her serve my rather crotchety old grandfather, going way beyond what should have been "expected" of her, day after day. And yet she had a joy and a quiet peace. She knew Jesus well from experiencing Him in the everyday. She was always doing something for somebody. In fact, I don't remember ever seeing her do one single thing just for herself. She was a welcoming, giving, laughing presence that always made me feel safe and loved. Now she is enjoying her citizenship in heaven, her lowly body conformed to His glorious body (Philippians 3). 

The messes aren't going away. But maybe we will learn to see them differently. Maybe we will see them as a way to reach forward, as a call to look upward, counting all things loss for Him.

Day 23 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Breathing lessons

Today was one of those days. You know the ones. The days when the messes take over your life. I won't shock you with all the gory details, but the messes definitely won today. By the time I got to dinner, I had just enough sanity left to throw some hot dogs and leftover mac and cheese in the microwave for the kids. Good thing I made a big salad yesterday to go with it. 

After bath time, which was much later than planned because of Youngest Daughter's refusal to eat the hot dog I had labored over, said daughter began wailing as I was talking on the phone with my husband, who was woefully absent this evening. "I wanted to pick out MY OWN pull up!" This she screamed over the sounds of my son's screeching from the other room as he practiced his recorder. Not to be outdone, my other daughter began crying as she had put her nightgown on backwards and apparently had her still-wet arms stuck in the sleeves. In the meantime, the dog got into the trash and I could feel the piles of dirty dishes in the kitchen just laughing at me. 

I somehow managed to get everyone into bed and even did a few of the dishes. I sat on the couch and thought about the laundry lurking in the laundry room and the clean sheets waiting to be put on the bed. I thought of the messes I had been cleaning up all day and the messes waiting for me tomorrow. I started crying. I know, I know. I really should be grateful for the messes, but tonight? Not so much. 

I knew I had to pull it together and write about abiding in Christ. I am obviously excelling at it. Instead, just for fun, I looked on Wikipedia for the word "maid."

What I found was rather enlightening.

For instance, I read that a maid is a domestic servant that usually only the wealthiest houses can afford, particularly a live-in maid. I also learned that in a great house, there are many types of maids.

• Parlour maid--keeps everything tidy and presentable, serves tea and refreshments, and helps to serve dinner.
• Chamber maid--keeps the fires lit in the fireplaces and maintains the bedrooms.
• Laundry maid--maintains the bedding and towels and washes, dries, and irons clothes for the whole household.
• Nursery maid--works in the children's nursery, maintaining cleanliness and good order.
• Kitchen maid--the head kitchen maid plans and oversees meals while the under kitchen maid prepares vegetables, peels potatoes, and assists in preparing the meals and making them look presentable.
• Scullery maid--washes all dishes, glassware, and cutlery and scrubs the floors. 

And then of course there are the maids to the maids. But I won't get into that.

It does make me feel a teeny bit better that there are SIX kinds of maids to do the things I do every single day. 

If you haven't guessed by now, I was throwing a little pity party. 

And then I read Ann Voskamp's post about joy that you really must stop and read immediately. And I thought of how I snapped at the kids, hung up on my husband, complained to a friend. Of how I never once thought about Christ or about abiding in Him until I finally collapsed in a defeated heap on the couch.

Voskamp writes, 

Do I really smother my own joy because I believe that anger achieves more than love? 

That Satan’s way is more powerful, more practical, more fulfilling in my daily life than Jesus’ way? Why else get angry? 

Is it because I think complaining, exasperation, resentment will pound me up into the full life I really want? 

When I choose — and it is a choice — to crush joy with bitterness, am I not purposefully choosing to take the way of the Prince of Darkness? 

Choosing the angry way of Lucifer because I think it is more effective — more expedient— than giving thanks? than living joy?”

Ouch.

And then there is the "cloud of witnesses" who already spoke so powerfully to me this month about why we are doing this, what it's all for. 


And there is Jesus.

It's right there in Hebrews 12, and if I would have stopped and listened, I would have seen it coming, the snare laid for me, and maybe I would have been prepared.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

"For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls" (Hebrews 12:1-3).

So what if I AM a maid? I'm following in the footsteps of my Savior, who willingly made Himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and poured out His life (Philippians 2:7-8), and He did so for the joy of it.

It's just like He told us. If I abide in Him, I abide in His love, and my joy is full (John 15:11).

And how do I abide in His love? By keeping His commandments (John 15:10). And what are His commandments?

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John: 15:12-13).

I don't think anyone around me felt very loved tonight. 

Ann Voskamp again:

Why let anything steal your joy? 

If the Joy of the Lord is my strength, then why let anything steal my strength?  

The Joy of the Lord is our strength — and anger leaves everyone weak.

I'm reminded again that it's like breathing, this choosing. I can choose to love, to abide, to let His joy fill me. 

I guess I need to take some breathing lessons. 

Day 22 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Right here

It's what we were made for.

When I stop, when I still myself, when I sit under the weight of a blue sky hovering beneath eternity, I can feel deep within what creation already knows.

Him.

God is Love, and His love longed to lavish itself, to share the delight and wonder and endless joy of loving and being loved. He dreamed us up, thought about us, counted the hairs on our head and planned our days. He breathed His breath into us, gave us the life that comes from love. His breath is the core of our creation. It is the center of who we are.

He made us to be with Him.

He made us to be free to love Him back.

Isn't this what we all long for? To be loved back? Why should God be any different?

The One who IS Love longing for our love?

And longing to show us how His love can make us--and keep us--whole.

But if we learned anything from the Garden, it is that we are too quick to forget.

We wonder now why God hides Himself. If He is Love, if He wants us so very much, why can't we see Him, hear His voice? Why doesn't He just come to us and put our doubts to rest?

But now I wonder . . . If we could see Him face to face, would we have no choice but to fall at His feet? If He appeared before us as He truly is, would our sin-scarred eyes be able to bear it? Could it be that our weak selves would not hold together at the sound of His voice?

I wonder if He really wants a belief like that.

Wouldn't a God of love, a God who wants to be loved back, pursue us in gentler ways, ways that give us the chance to choose Him? Ways that reveal not only His might but His grace, His mercy, His creativity?

He comes to us, sometimes softly but always powerfully, in ways we can bear. He asks us to seek, and He is always ready to be found. He labors over each of us, preparing the unique path that will draw us to Him, if only we will look for it.

We forget Him so quickly, but He is always working to remind us.

Paul addressed the people of Athens who worshipped the God they knew existed but didn't understand:

"The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 

"God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in hope that they might grope for Him and perhaps find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17: 24-28).

He is not worshipped with our hands because He wants our hearts. He doesn't need anything from us. But He wants our love.

We are His offspring, fallen and broken, but made from His breath. He has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). When you seek Him, when you still yourself to receive Him, you will know it.

You will see Him in the creation around you as it yearns upward toward its Creator, singing the song of His love.

You will find Him in the people who love you and even the people who don't, sin-weary souls who bear the stamp of His image.

You will know Him in His Word, His breath of life and hope, our love story.

You will experience His Spirit within you. You will see Him working in the time and place He chose for you. Sometimes it seems like groping in the darkness. But only in Him will we find our true selves.

The holy is among us. He wants us; He waits for us; He speaks to us in endless creative ways. And the best part is, we are free to love Him back.

Or not.

You can't go into a love like this halfheartedly. He gave all, and He wants all. He knows we will only be truly satisfied when we are all in.

He offers so much more than we could ever understand. Someday He will return to put all our suffering in its place. But first He wants to love us gently, so when we see Him face to face, we will already know Him. Then He will make us perfect as we were meant to be, so we can bear Him. Love Him. Be with Him.

He is here with us now, never far from us, waiting only for us to reach out, grope for Him, and find Him.

He is right here.

Day 21 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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What happens to people who pray

"People who pray, really pray, don't talk about it much. After you have looked into the matter carefully, you may be able to puzzle out who is really praying. In general, though, prayer is something of an underground. Is it because people who pray are too possessive about their experiences to share them? On the contrary, people who pray usually share their experiences generously. But on the whole they don't advertise their prayer lives. Perhaps the energy that might be used in talk goes to prayer instead.

"In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent lawyers, doctors, businessmen. But their hearts lie in the inner life and they are moved by that."

--Emilie Griffin, Clinging--The Experience of Prayer

Day 20 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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Seeking a homeland

By faith Abel offered.

By faith Enoch was taken.

By faith Noah built.

By faith Abraham obeyed, and

by faith he sojourned in a foreign land.

By faith Sara received strength to conceive.

By faith Abraham offered up his only son.

By faith Moses was hidden,

refused his royal identity, 

chose to suffer with his people,

esteemed reproach for Christ better than the riches of Egypt,

forsook his home,

kept the Passover,

passed through the Red Sea.

By faith the God-seekers

subdued kingdoms,

worked righteousness,

obtained promises,

stopped the mouths of lions,

quenched fire,

escaped the edge of the sword,

out of weakness were made strong,

became valiant in battle,

turned armies to flight, 

were raised from death.

They were mocked, tried, scourged,

chained, imprisoned,

stoned, sawn in two, tempted,

slain with the sword. 

They wandered--

destitute, afflicted tormented--

of whom

the world 

was

not 

worthy.


They came to God, 

believing that HE IS.

They waited,

endured,

judged Him to be faithful,

accounted that He was able,

looked to the reward.

Though the promises were far off, 

they were sure of them.

They embraced the hope

of things not seen.

They became strangers and pilgrims on this earth.


They were seeking their homeland.


And they all had the chance

to turn back. 

But they chose

the city with foundations, 

whose builder and maker is

God.


And He is not ashamed

to be called their God.


They all died

without receiving the promises,

because they knew

God is preparing something 

better. 


They are waiting 

for us.

He wants to draw in

all His children

and make us one 

perfect

holy

family.


Will you join them?

*From Hebrews 11

Day 19 of Abide: 31 Days of Resting in Him

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