Abiding or Striving

ABIDING OR STRIVING

 

Often words have another word which has a completely opposite meaning. For example black and white, hot and cold, soft and hard etc, these two words abiding and striving are like that, and are completely opposite in meaning. They are important words to understand when considering our journey up the road to the Father, after we accept Jesus as Savior. Our spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus can be a very exciting life, but one filled with many twists and turns. Bob Mumford calls this journey the "Agape Road", and has written a book by that title. One chapter of his book deals with this subject of abiding and striving, and I have based this article on information he shares. The scriptures mention some form of the word abide over 120 times, the apostle John uses it over 80 times in his gospel plus his 3 letters. And remember he is often referred to as the disciple that Jesus loved, and was probably the closest one to Jesus emotionally, of the entire twelve. In chapter 15 of his gospel it is used 12 times, and is used in relation to the subject of bearing fruit in the Kingdom. So we can see that a proper understanding of it's meaning, as well as it's opposite "striving", is essential to being able to live a life pleasing to the Father.

 

The word "religion" is another word that must also be understood. It is used to describe many different groups of people from many different cultures. Basically all humans were created with a desire to worship someone, or some thing. A brief study of different cultures throughout past ages will show this fact. Some worshipped all sorts of objects, such as animals, trees, idols they made with their own hands, etc. Read the first 2 chapters of Paul's letter to the church in Rome for details. Jesus came to earth to establish a "relationship" with the Father, not another religion! (John 14:6). This was accomplished by His dying on the cross, to pay the price of the sin for all mankind. (John 3:16-17). All we read about "abiding" in scripture, pertains to relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, after we have been "born again", and are adopted into God's Forever Family. Religious people, who have not been born again "strive" to gain acceptance by God, by doing all sorts of "good works"! No amount of religious activity can ever earn the acceptance by God into His family, because it is a gift of God. No amount of striving will ever be enough; it is obtained by grace through faith alone, without any works on our part. Read Paul's description of how we receive salvation in (Eph 2:1-10), there is no other way!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                                  30/04/12