So I’ve been trying to figure out how exactly I’m going to do Abide this year. What does it look like to dwell in God? How do I do that practically speaking? I keep imagining myself trying to abide, which feels about the same as when you try to think about something and then you can’t think of anything at all. You know that feeling?
What I do know is that what I want is to learn to settle in to a more solid place in my soul. I feel like I’ve lived there before, and much of it came from an intentional intake of truth, truth that told me who I am and who He is and where I stand with Him. Henri Nouwen talks about it in his book Inner Voice of Love,
“You have to trust the place that is solid, the place where you can say yes to God’s love even when you do not feel it. Right now you feel nothing except emptiness and the lack of strength to choose. But keep saying, ‘God loves me, and God’s love is enough.’ You have to choose the place over and over again, and return to it after every failure.”
I feel like the last year I’ve been focused outwardly, and not in a good way. Not in an other-centered way, but in a survival mode-is there life out there-kind of way. This quote reminds me that the solid place is inside, where He dwells, and I have to choose to go to that place again and again, not only after every failure but even after every success.
So here’s to choosing to abide in the solid place. What are you going to do to start focusing on your word of the year?
I love that: “say yes to God’s love even when you don’t feel it”. That sums it up for me. It’s something I share with my daughters all the time. Our feelings come and go but God’s promises are true and He never changes. I can’t rely on my feelings! I think that’s how I will abide: remember that I can’t trust my heart but I can trust Him. Lean not on my own understanding but in all my ways acknowledge Him and He will make my path straight.
Laura – glad to see you here on my blog! I just read some of yours. Sounds like you’ve been on quite a journey! Praise God for all the healing and growth that He’s brought you through.
I am also choosing a solid place– after a particularly awful 2013. 🙁 My word is STRONG. I am reflecting on how I persevered, with God’s Grace, through that awful year, and have come out of it sculpted even more so into the woman He wants me to be. How this will look by the end of 2014, I have no idea …
Heather – sorry to hear you had a tough year! Ours was an uphill climb as well, but we certainly made a lot of progress. I do hope you find His strength in this next year, whatever He gives you!
Visiting from Faith-Filled Fridays. Abide was my Word of the Year a few years back. Loved that word! This year my word is COUNT.
Debbie – hi! I’m curious about your word so I’ll have to come check it out. Tell me, how did you pursue Abide when it was your word?
Great post Gina. On January 2, I too determined that my word of the year should hover over the target of “abide”. One thing I was processing was that the word, although biblical, is sometimes hard for me to grasp in our culture. I was trying to think of some other metaphors that I might more easily identify with.
Some I thought of were “connected” or “plugged in”. Any other ways you’ve found helpful in thinking about a more colloquial term for this crucial focus of our year?
Russ – you’ve chosen well! 🙂 Yes, it’s not a very common word. I’ve thought about the word remain, but mostly I have pictures in my head of places of refuge, like a cave, where I can be sheltered. I think about the images of God being our refuge and our rock, and what it looks like for me to rest there.