Deep Thoughts Early in the Morning

I will freely admit I have no idea how to expand upon what I am going to say. What I can share is that I am reading Andrew Murray's updated classic Abiding in Christ and that the notion of abiding, and what it means, has always been an elusive concept. I know as Christ followers we are supposed to do it, what I did not know until reading this book is that we are not the ones responsible for making it happen. 

That said, the explanation of why this is difficult for us is two-fold. First, we erringly believe that this is only possible so much as we consciously think of Christ in continuous awareness. From his explanation I now know this is not true. Second, we mistakenly assume that because of our sinfulness we are not able to achieve abiding until we deal with our failures. Again, not true.

Now, we are continually told that God can not be in the presence of sin, which is true. However, if we are in Christ, and covered in His blood and righteousness, our sin is in fact hidden from God's sight. At this point we have to wonder, and I pray we will let these possibilities roll over in our heads today:

What if in our sinfulness, God is not turning His back on us

but we are turning our back on Him, when through Jesus

we can approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive

mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need?

And what if, when Jesus tells Paul that His grace is sufficient and His

power is made perfect in our weakness, it is beyond the mere ability

to help us do what we think we can't, but includes the ability to maintain

us in Him (abiding) because His power keeps us from falling away and

His presence is there to remind us that nothing can pluck us from His hand

because nothing in all creation can separate us from His love? What if His 

grace is not the power to remain sinless but the power to remain in the 

knowledge that we are loved and forgiven?