What Does “Abide” Actually Mean?

Joshua has some long passages about dividing up the land. And to be honest, it's easy to skim a little bit because it's just listing city after city after city. But then you come to Chapter 21.

The very last verse of Joshua 21 says, “And not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled.”

And after kind of slogging through some of the cities after cities, tribe after tribe, this is such a refreshing verse to hear. Not because it’s directly aimed at me particularly, but just the goodness of God that not one of his good promises to Israel failed. And if that was true for the Israelites and what God promised them, then it makes me wonder what does he promise to me and what I should expect? 

Because you know he's not going to fail. He's never going to fail

Along those lines, one of the topics and themes that come up often in Christian circles is this idea of abiding—coming from John 15, which says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”

Are we trying to abide with Christ? We may not fully wrap our mind and heart around what it fully means to abide, but we can start to ask ourselves, in the business of my day or in the business of my world am I abiding? Certainly, it can be a time in the morning where you're just abiding with Christ. But it should be throughout the day too. It should be in every meeting and every conversation. We should always be saying, “God, I’m abiding with you in this conversation. So help guide direct me and then away we go.” 

Brian Mosley

Brian Mosley serves as the president of RightNow Media where his passion is to help people live out their faith in their neighborhoods, offices, schools, homes, and around the world.