His Friend and Love

I just have to share what I learned today. I have been reading in John 15, and really thinking a lot about the whole concept of abiding/remaining in Christ. I have been thinking about it a lot in several areas of my life. And just about having that attitude of relaxing and just being. Not only in my relationship with Christ, but also in my relationship with my family. I have been reading a very interesting book about the way young children learn - how parents feel pressured to push them from an early age to become successful geniuses, but that its more effective as a parent to just spend time with your child, playing with and interacting with them in normal contexts. And in my marriage, I know that it is more important to enjoy and spend time with my husband then to try to be super-housewife (which I am anything but). Back to my relationship with Christ, just as I do with my baby and my husband, I tend to strive to DO all these things and feel guilty when I don't accomplish them. But the only way I can get anything done, Christ says, is to relax and abide, just remain in His Presence, connected to Him. (That's another thing I've been thinking about - His Presence. Just to have Him present is so powerful!) And there IS doing involved in abiding. When we abide (or remain), John 15 says, we obey His commands. And when we obey His commands we abide/remain. What is His command? To LOVE one another as Christ loved us.

And here is the coolest part that I am so excited about (this all comes from John 15:9-17: When we share in the God-act of loving others, we share in God's heart, we are directly connected to His flow of love, and we are His friends! We relate to the business of God - which is Love!
This means we can never run out of love. Love is, in fact, what keeps us so connected with Him. The more we love, the more God pours His love back into us. So we can never run out of love for others or love so much that we ourselves go unloved. It's impossible!