To Abide in Christ Is to Trust Him

(Store in Soho, NYC)

This quote is from my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

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Abiding is a type of trusting. 

I bought a new chair for my home office. I had the previous chair for twenty years. I trusted it. I knew it would hold me. Therefore, I had no anxiety about it. It would be contradictory to say, “I trust the chair I’m sitting in, but am afraid it won’t hold me.” 

To abide in Christ is to trust him. I “put my trust in the Lord.” Which means, 

• If God was a chef, I would eat his cooking. 
• If God was a shepherd, I would listen for his voice and follow. 
• If God was a rock, I would stand on him. 
• If God was a fortress, I would make my home in him. 
• If God was a river, and I a tree, I would send my roots to him. 
• If God was a vine, and I a branch, I would attach myself to him. 
• If God was a fire, I would be consumed by him. 
• If God was water, I would drink of him.
• If I was a cup, I would be filled to overflowing by him. 
• If God was a hidden treasure, I would seek him. 
• If God was a word, I would read him. 
• If God was my Lord, I would obey him. 
• If God was a chair, I would sit on him. 

I would do these things every day… after day… after day. 

There is a cumulative effect that results from a lifetime of trusting in God. A psychological confidence, a certitude, emerges. It is like the confidence I had because of sitting in the same chair for twenty years, and finding that, through it all, it still holds.