Abide in His Attributes

Have you ever stopped to wonder just how transformation occurs?  I have spoken often as of late the transformation that God desires to accomplish in each one of us. 

Here are some recent thoughts on this subject:

God is faithful and God is loving, but how can I be faithful and loving too?  It is through abiding in Christ that these things occur.   Jesus said: “abide in Me, and I in you.”  ( See John15:4)   To abide in Christ is more than just our Christian duty or responsibility, but also, it is our privilege!   We must be careful also that we do not fall into a trap of misunderstanding this word Abide.    The idea has been often misunderstood, as thought it is a mystical or indefinable experience.   Jesus goes to great lengths in John to make clear that Abiding involves a number of concrete realities. 

As you abide in Him you become faithful!  God is loving, and as you abide in him:  Love becomes a part of who you are and what you do!

The fruit of the spirit is not your attributes, it is not something you have manufactured or produced.  But rather,  it is something God has generated in you!  

These and others are His attributes living in you because HE is there within you!   How does this happen?  ONLY By faith!  By believing!  By faith,  He dwells in our lives and makes His presence known through His likeness manifesting itself within our thoughts, attitudes, actions and behavior.

We must never forget that this abiding is made possible by His grace.   Faith itself is rooted in the activity of God.   God the divine, who crafted us, called us and grafted us into Christ, cleansed us by His word, and fit us into his family!

All that has happened to me  is not by me, but rather by the sovereign act of God!  All that I have and experience is because of His active grace in my life!

Learning to abide in Him means that this union is not only divinely initiate, but it is also divinely sustained. Abiding involves our response to the teaching of Jesus Christ through obedience. 

Look up: 

·      John 15:7

·      Colossians 3:16

·      Ephesians 5:18

To keep it simple, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to transform our minds, direct our wills, and impact our affections.   Our relationship to Christ should be so intimately connected to what we read in our Bibles,  truly becomes a marching order for our life.