The Gateway of Abiding

Resting in God—What Does This Mean Exactly?

November is a month where we feel the year slowing down a bit. The trees shed their leaves, life has settled into into it’s fall rhythm, and if you live in the US, hearts and minds on looking forward to two days of turkey-induced rest. So let’s go with this seasonal theme, shall we, and talk rest.

Specifically, abiding in Christ. We hear this phrase a lot, but what does it really mean? And how do we abide in him?

From what I’ve experienced, this word is first an invitation. Yes, it is a command, but abiding is not something that can be forced. It comes from releasing to God, and we best and truly release to God when we are at rest in him.

What does it mean to be at rest in God? Well, what does it feel like to be rested in general? Think about those days when you wake up refreshed after a good-night’s sleep.

On those days, the first few seconds of my day already feel settled as I blink awake. I’m still somewhere between sleep-land and full awareness, but there is one thought that I’m cognizant of, “I had a good night’s sleep. Yay!” Feeling rested makes me feel ready for a new day and, ironically, ready to move into the day and take action.

Or think about what it feels like to be with a friend who you feel at rest with in his or her presence. There is no striving. No pretending. Instead, there’s genuine sharing. Understanding. Acceptance. Honesty. Depth. Mirth. Peace of mind because they will drop no bombs on you or your emotional world. We cover a lot for others, as is the way of grace, but in truth, most of us long for the kinds of relationships where there is an ease of being with. Rest.

This is how God wants us to be with him. His rest makes us feel settled, refreshed, and ready to take on the world. This is the kind of friend that he is to us: accepting, fun, steady. And so, this is what it means to abide in God. It means we rest in relationship with him. A relationship marked by the qualities described above. How do we get to this kind of rested relationship? By releasing how we think he wants us to be when we interact with him.

A Walk in a Garden

One of my favorite pictures of resting in relationship with God comes from Genesis 3. Adam and Eve have just eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and are feeling ashamed – disconnected from each other and from God.

Meanwhile God has just arrived for his evening stroll. It says that he came during the cool of the day to take a walk with his kids. Is there anything that feels more rested than this scene (on God’s part anyways)? It’s twilight and the light is just right, the kind of light where the blue is warm, golden, and laden with the magic of possibility. The fireflies have come out, and all earth let’s out a breath of release and acceptance, a breath saying to effect “It’s been a good day. A full day. A day of enough. Now it is time to rest for the evening.”

Feel that scene. Imagine that scene, and then place it in the world’s most beautiful garden. I can’t think of a better setting to hang with God. And I love that, although Adam and Eve were furiously sewing fig leaves together, striving to fix their mess, God was on a walk, the same walk he went on every day, to be with his kids. Adam and Eve didn’t join him, initially, but he called out to them. Then he went to find them.

He took the needle and thread out of their hands, tossed it into the bushes and made provision for them to be covered, and to rest from trying to appear before him how they thought he wanted them to be. To rest again in relationship with him while he did the work of sorting out the consequences of their choice.

‘Just Be’ with God

So back to abiding and resting in relationship with God. It’s this: going on a walk with God in the dusk of the day. On your ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’. That’s it. Just be with God and then let the conversation flow between you and him.

Pause to smell the flowers. Enjoy companionable silence. Say what’s on your heart and listen to what he has to say to you. Try to catch a firefly and have fun with him. Most of all, believe that this is what God first wants from you…just you.

In the middle of your fig-leaf-sewing moments and in the moments when you’re happy to draw near. Accept his invitation, put down your needle and thread, and go for a stroll, resting in your relationship with him. This is the gateway to abiding in Christ.

Kemi