DAY 156

ABIDE or ABANDON?

2 Chronicles 23 & 24 and John 15

Today, with all our technology, as I continue to read the these sacred texts, it does make me every now and then, think about how different our world is in one respect and how similar it is in another.

The Old Testament story reads like a movie. A bad king is put to death (in the prior chapter) but his evil mother (named Athaliah) kills all his siblings save for one (Joash). This one young boy is saved and hidden in the House of the Lord for six years. He comes to the throne, the evil mother is killed, and this new king reforms the country…and they all live happily ever after…Nope! The king ultimately dies and in chapter 24, verse 18, it says they after all the work of reform and restoring the Temple…the abandoned the House of the Lord…and they don’t live happily ever after.

Abandoned is a strong word. Abandonment is a strong action. Abandonment still happens today with all the attendant effects.

Jesus says “Abide in Me.” Do not abandon me, but abide. In John 15 we read more of these wonderful phrases: “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends” and “You did not choose me, I chose you.” Our Lord, by His words and deeds has been showing over and over again how He is the exact opposite of an “abandoning type of person.”

Consider again his words about how we are “friends” and how “he chose us.” Why say them? My thought is so we would know how committed Jesus is to each of us. It is why the beginning of chapter 15 of John almost sounds like Jesus pleading with us. “Abide” he says (don’t abandon). Those who abandon are removed and thrown in a pile and burned. Those who abide…well they are pruned and trimmed. If you have ever watched a vine dresser you will notice two things. First, the great care and thought which goes into each “cut.” Second, the cut is made on “live branch”…the branch “feels” the cut. As we “abide” with Jesus, the Father who is the vine dresser will “trim” and “prune”…but do not abandon…abide.

I have to tell you I don’t like to be “trimmed.” I like to grow (and go) my own way. The problem with that behavior is I make poor choices; choices like the people in the Old Testament do as they abandon God.

What causes you to make poor choices? Is it stress? Life gets too hard and you seek a release through something or someone that you know isn’t good for you. Is it success? Things are going well and you somehow feel like you don’t have to lean on God as much. Is it boredom? You know all this “God stuff”, all this “Bible”, all this seems a little too repetitive and maybe even dull.

The point in these Scriptures today, even amid our outwardly different world, it so think about them and how we can see the all too constant we call “human behavior.” We read about the abandonment of God and we read about God pleading with us to stay, to abide. Might I, might you, think about ourselves a little today and the next time we “feel like” walking in our own path, or the next time the “pruner’s shears” seem a little bit too close for comfort…that we remember He calls us friends – chosen friends.