Abide in My Love

I often come to God in prayer and begin straight away with requests and petitions. I was therefore struck by a tweet that I saw earlier in the week where Terry Virgo is reflecting on John 15:9:

“Abide in my love” must require our spending time (each day) simply enjoying the wonder that he loves us with phenomenal joy & delight. Don’t simply rush into your prayer list.

This is a really helpful reminder that God delights in us (Psalm 149:4) and wants to spend time with us (James 4:8). It is so important to have time soaking in God’s presence each day reflecting on the wonder of who he is, what he has done for us and thanking him for it. As I write about in my post ‘Come Holy Spirit,’ we can come to God as we are and ask him to meet with us. We can do this as we pray or also as we listen to/sing worship music. Don’t disqualify yourself from being able to spend time with God if you are chronically ill or have reduced capacity; when I was long term sick I had to make some adaptions yet I can testify to having some of my closest times with God during this time.

The tweet also reminds me of the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer when Jesus is teaching us how to pray and tells us to start by marveling about who God is. Before there is any mention of asking God for forgiveness or provision we are called to focus our eyes on God by the line:  ‘…Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name (Matthew 6v9).’

So Lord today, I ask you to abide with me. Amen

Other posts related to this one:

• For more reflections on the Lord’s Prayer see: ‘The Lord’s Prayer a Template for Prayer.’  
• I write about songs I have found particularly helpful to engage with God in my post: ‘The Importance of Sung Worship.’
• I reflect about how I adapted to engage with sung worship when I had very low capacity in my post: ‘Strategies to Engage In Sung Worship When Sick.’