What Does “Abide” Actually Mean?

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. This week’s guest is Brian Mosley . He 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. 

Joshua 21:45

Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

I've been reading through Joshua, and I’m not a Joshua expert by any means, but there was a long passage where Joshua was just talking about dividing up the land. And to be honest, there are some passages that I can’t help but kind of skim here a little bit because it's just listing city after city and, you know, kind of geographics. But then this morning, I came 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 you know, after kind of slogging through some of the cities after city, tribe after tribe, I got to that verse and it was such a refreshing verse to hear. Not because that's directly aimed at me particularly, but just the goodness of God that not one of his good promises to Israel failed. And so you just think, okay, if that was true, you know, to the Israelites and to what God promised then, then it just makes me wonder what does he promise to me and what I should just expect? 

Because you know he's not going to fail. He's never going to fail. So I was just really encouraged by that this morning. It was kind of a little bright spot in the midst of some verses prior to that that were just not as impactful. And so all of a sudden it was like, wow, there's some gold right there in the midst of that. 

So this morning that was super inspirational. And then I guess just maybe if I could add one other thought to that, also seasonally I’ve been a part of a group that's been an encouragement to me. And like I mentioned earlier, just peers, you know, kind of helping you walk and strive through life. And one of the topics and themes that come up a lot here recently for this group is this idea of just abiding—coming from John 15 which says, apart from me, you can do nothing.

And so are we trying to abide with Christ and I confess, I don't know if I fully wrap my mind and heart around what it fully means to abide. But I was just encouraged by that thought of okay, in the business of my day or in the business of my world am I abiding? And I love what one of the guys I was talking to was reminding us. He's like, you know, certainly it can be a time in the morning where you're just abiding with Christ. But it should be throughout the day thing. You know, 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. 

And so again, I am still wrestling with what that really could and should look like for me. But it's a theme that's been on my mind. It's a word that's going on a lot here in recent weeks is just abiding, you know, what does it really look like? Am I abiding throughout my day? And not just kind of giving God some lip service in the morning and then the rest of the day's mine. And so working through that I just love that idea of what it would really, really look like if I was abiding.