Abiding in Christ

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness
and trust is your strength.

Isaiah 30:15 (NIV)

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 37:7

Truly my soul silently waits for God.

Psalm 62:1

There is a view of the Christian life that regards it as a sort of partnership, in which God and man each have to do their part. It admits that there is little that man can do, and even that little is defiled with sin; still, the view holds, man must do his utmost; only then can he expect God to do His part. To those who think this way, it is extremely difficult to understand what Scripture means when it speaks of our being still and doing nothing, of our resting and waiting to see the salvation of God. It appears to them a perfect contradiction when we speak of this quietness and ceasing from all effort as the secret of the most productive activity of man. And yet this is just what Scripture does teach.

The explanation of the apparent mystery is to be found in this: When God and man are spoken of as working together, it is not in the usual sense of a partnership between two partners who each contribute out of their individual reserves their share to a mutual project. The relationship between a believer and Christ is a very different one. Here, cooperation is founded on subordination. As Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works, so the believer can do nothing of himself. What he can do of himself is altogether sinful. He must therefore cease entirely from his own doing and wait for the working of God in him. As he ceases from self-effort, faith assures him that God is working in him to complete the work; what God does is to renew, sanctify, and awaken all his energies to their highest power.

So as the believer yields himself as a truly passive instrument in the hand of God, and works with renewed confidence in God’s almighty power rather than his own, in that proportion will he experience the deepest possible expression of the Christian life. Passivity does not mean inactivity; it means that as we live out our Christian responsibilities, we do not trust in our own strength but in God’s at work within us.

Among the lessons to be learned of those who are studying the blessed art of abiding in Christ, there is none more needful and more profitable than cultivating stillness of soul. In it alone can we produce a teachable spirit, to which the Lord will reveal His secrets. To the meek He shows His ways. This spirit was exhibited so beautifully by three women in the New Testament. It was evident in Jesus’ mother, whose only answer to the most wonderful revelation ever made to a human being was, ‘‘I am the Lord’s servant, May it be to me as you have said’’ (Luke 1:38 NIV); and as mysteries multiplied around her, it is written of her: ‘‘Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart’’ (Luke 2:19). In Mary of Bethany, who ‘‘sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word’’ (Luke 10:39), and who showed in anointing Him for His burial how she had understood the mystery of His death better than His disciples had, we also see this spirit of meekness. She wanted to be still and learn from the One who had the words of life. We also see a meek and quiet spirit in the sinful woman who sought the Lord in the house of the Pharisee, with tears that spoke more than words (Luke 7:37–38). It is a soul silent before God that is best prepared for knowing Jesus, and for holding on to the blessings He bestows. It is when the soul is hushed in silent awe and worship before the Holy Presence revealed within that the still, small voice of the blessed Spirit will be heard.

Therefore, beloved Christian, as often as you seek to better understand the blessed mystery of abiding in Christ, let this be your first thought: ‘‘My soul, wait silently for God alone; for my expectation is from Him’’ (Psalm 62:5). Do you hope to realize the wondrous union with the Heavenly Vine? Then know that flesh and blood cannot reveal it to you, but only the Father in heaven. You only have to acknowledge your own ignorance and impotence; the Father will delight to give you the teaching of the Holy Spirit. If your ear is open, and your thoughts are brought into subjection, and your heart is prepared in silence to wait upon God and to hear what He speaks, then He will reveal to you His secrets.

One of the first secrets revealed will be deeper insight into the truth that as you sink low before Him in nothingness and helplessness, in a silence and stillness of soul that seeks to catch the faintest whisper of His love, teachings will come to you that you never heard before because of the rush and noise of your own thoughts and efforts. You will learn how your best work is to listen, hear, and believe what He promises; to watch, wait, and see what He does; and then, by faith, worship, and obedience, to yield yourself to the One who works mightily in you.

One would think that no message could be more beautiful or welcome than this: that we may rest and be quiet, and that our God will work for us and in us. And yet how far this is from being the case! How slow many are to learn that quietness is blessing, that quietness is strength, that quietness is the source of the highest activity—the secret of all true abiding in Christ! Let us try to learn it and to watch out for whatever interferes with it. The dangers that threaten the soul’s rest are many.

There is a depleting of energy that comes from entering needlessly and too deeply into the interests of this world. Every one of us has his divine calling; and within the circle pointed out by God himself, interest in our work and its surroundings is a duty. But even here the Christian needs to be watchful and sober-minded. We need a holy self-control in regard to things not absolutely imposed upon us by God. If abiding in Christ is really our first aim, we must beware of all needless entertainment. We must watch even in lawful and necessary things against the wondrous power these have to keep the soul so occupied that there remains little power or zest for fellowship with God. Then there is the restlessness and worry from care and anxiety about earthly things; these eat away the life of trust and keep the soul like a troubled sea. There the gentle whispers of the Holy Comforter cannot be heard.

No less hurtful is the spirit of fear and distrust in spiritual things; with its apprehensions, it never really hears what God has to say. Above all, though, is the unrest that comes from seeking in our own way and in our own strength the spiritual blessing that comes only from above. The heart occupied with its own plans and efforts for doing God’s will and securing the blessing of abiding in Jesus will fail continually. God’s work is hindered by our interference. He can do His work perfectly only when the soul ceases from its work. He will do His work mightily in the soul that honors Him by expecting Him to work both in intent and fulfillment.

Last of all, even when the soul seeks to enter the way of faith, there is the impatience of the flesh, which forms its judgment of the life and progress of the soul not according to the divine but a human standard.

In dealing with all this, and so much more, blessed is the man who learns the lesson of stillness, and fully accepts God’s Word: ‘‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’’ Each time he listens to the word of the Father, or asks the Father to listen to his words, he does not dare to begin his Bible reading or prayer without first pausing and waiting, until the soul is hushed in the presence of the Eternal Majesty. Under a sense of the Divine nearness, the soul, feeling how self is always ready to assert itself and intrude even into the holiest of all with its thoughts and efforts, yields itself in a quiet act of self-surrender to the teaching and working of the Holy Spirit. It is still and waits in holy silence, until all is calm and ready to receive the revelation of the divine will and presence. Its reading and prayer then become a waiting on God with ear and heart open, cleansed to receive fully only what He says.

‘‘Abide in Christ!’’ Let no one think that he can do this if he does not have his daily quiet time, his seasons of meditation and waiting on God. In these a habit of soul must be cultivated, in which the believer goes out into the world and its distractions with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, guarding the heart and mind (Philippians 4:7). It is in such a calm and restful soul that the life of faith can take root deeply, the Holy Spirit can give His blessed teaching, and the Father can accomplish His glorious work.

May each one of us learn every day to say, ‘‘Truly my soul silently waits for God.’’ And may every feeling of difficulty in attaining this only cause us to look to Him and trust the One whose presence makes even a storm to be calm. Cultivate quietness as a means to abiding in Christ, and expect the ever-deepening quietness and calm of heaven in the soul as the fruit of abiding in Him.