The Baby Prophet and the Secret of Abiding

Well what's up guys?! It's been a while since I've written on here, so I'll give you a quick update "Gabe style": the baby prophet's gender will be determined at our doctor's appointment this Wednesday, so we'll let you know when we know. Kara's headaches have been--although not absent--much less frequent. She seems to have more energy. Praise God for the second trimester!

I have been fired up by this book I've been reading by Andrew Murray called "Abiding in Christ." He talks about how many Christians are trapped between two cyclical sins: not having the power to conquer sin, and not having the faith in Jesus to keep them from it. One feeds the other. Christians live in a constant cycle of defeat, drifting further and further away from the One who said "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Murray poses an interesting question: If we have the faith to come to Jesus and be forgiven of sin, why do we lack the faith He asks to "Abide in me"? Does a weary traveler expend much energy to take a much-needed respite on a hotel bed? Does an infant work really hard to be held in its mother's arms? This is the secret of abiding... and here's the bottom line: living 24/7 for Jesus is simpler than you think. It's a simple surrender that says, "Savior, I abide in you."

I have to tell you that my life is changing before my very eyes. I've learned this about my own desperate need to abide: even if I prayed 10 hours a day, I still need major help for the other 14! This is where abiding comes in, and since I have been praying this way and meditating on Jesus' words in Matthew 11 and John 15, I have been kept from simple temptations that otherwise would trip me up--particularly in my thought life. I recently had the opportunity to be selfish and get angry at someone for irritating me. But as I took some time out and literally prayed, "Jesus, I'm trying to abide here, and I need some major help!", my attitude completely changed.

Now I didn't do so well with a similar temptation yesterday. But I quickly repented to that person and asked forgiveness. See? The less work I do, the better it gets. Jesus is awesome.