Clinging to God is not enough...

Have you ever felt that you cling to God so much but it does not seem like it is enough? You know you are weak and you know you need His strength, but it does not seem like He gives it. You pray but don’t feel like you are being heard. You seek Him and don’t seem to find Him. You know in your mind that He is taking care of you, but in your heart you don’t feel Him. You feel frustrated because He promises to hold you, to care for you, to comfort you, but since you don’t feel it, it seems like He is failing you. You feel like you are swimming in a fog and you cannot get out no matter how hard you try.

Two weeks ago, I started to study John 15 again. It is one of my favorite chapters. It speaks of abiding in Christ, having our full dependence on Him and allowing Him to abide in us. Before I got past verse 4, I asked the same question I started out this post with: “Have you ever felt that you cling to God so much but it does not seem like it is enough?” I got my answer reading the first part of verse 4 again: “Abide in me, and I in you.”

“God, I know to abide in you…and I am trying but I don’t feel like you hear me or hold me,” I told Him. I could see God shaking His head at me saying, “You just don’t get it! Do you? Abide in me.”

That night, I asked someone else the same question and here is the answer I got: “Clinging to God is great and everything, but resting takes so much less effort.”

That is when I mentally slapped myself as God said, “Finally, you understand!”

Here is an excerpt from Andrew Murray’s book “Abide in Christ:”

“Does it weary the traveler to rest in the house or on the bed where he seeks repose from his fatigue? Or is it a labor to a little child to rest in his mother’s arms? Is it not the house that keeps the traveler within its shelter? Do not the arms of the mother sustain and keep the little one? And so it is with Jesus.”

Resting really does take so much less effort than clinging.

Then I asked: “What about Matthew 11 when God tells us to take up His yoke?” I thought resting was supposed to just be easy and don’t do anything… “It is not the yoke, but resistance to the yoke, that causes the difficulty; the wholehearted surrender to Jesus, as at once our Master and our Keeper, finds and secures the rest.” (Andrew Murray)

Again…I mentally slap myself. Working for God is much easier than resting and trusting in Him. Many times working for God takes us away from abiding in Him. Verses 4 and 5 of John 15 remind me that only through abiding in Christ can we bring forth fruit. Whatever we do for Him is useless and has no value if I am not doing it in His power.

The first part of verse 7 in Psalm 37 says the following: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him…”

When Christ calls to me: “Abide in me” …let my answer always be: “I do abide in You.”