I have spent six of the last seven days away from home on business, two in Las Vegas (all the time there consumed by meetings) and four in Oakland. When I have been away for a number of days I begin to look forward to that walk through the front door of our house. Immediately I feel at home—the place of acceptance and ease, of rest and refreshment.
In John 15:4 Jesus said, Abide in Me, and I in you. It is a mutual abiding.
The word “abide” means to remain (the word modern translations often use), to stay, to dwell, to lodge. Or to put it differently, the principle is for you to feel at home in Jesus and for Jesus to feel at home in you.
Your relationship with Jesus should have that sense of feeling at home. One day that sense of feeling at home will be complete when you dwell forever in the new creation where there is no more death, no more crying, no more mourning, no more pain. Every tear will be wiped away. You will be at home.
In the meantime, you have the opportunity for a taste of that eternal home in your present relationship with Jesus. In him you have the promise of acceptance, the promise of forgiveness, the promise of rest, the promise of refreshment. All of the good things that make home feel like home you have in Jesus.
You can feel at home in Jesus.
The second part of the verse speaks of Jesus abiding in you. Does your life provide a place where Jesus would feel at home? If he went everywhere you went, saw everything you saw, did everything you did, would he feel at home with it all
Or would he have to excuse himself from some of it because it would not feel like home to him?
If you are honest, you know there are some things in your life, at least some of the time, which do not honor Christ and so make your life an uninviting place rather than one that is welcoming to him..
That is why the gospel is such good news. In the gospel there is forgiveness of sin and the removal of guilt. In the gospel there is the promise that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us.
In the gospel there is the fullness of the unending love of Jesus. There is nothing I can do to make Jesus love me any less or any more than he loves me right now.
The gospel cleans up your life so it becomes a welcoming place for Jesus. He will abide in you and feel at home in your life.
That is glory in the midst of the grind.
The Glory of the Grind 
What mind-boggling, wonderful good news, that Jesus abides in us because of what He has done in forgiving our sins, and not of ourselves, but is a free gift. Thank you for illustrating the concept of our abiding in Jesus, and Jesus abiding in us, John. And yes, definitely, Christ in us is the hope of glory, in the midst of the grind.
Thanks, Dee. It is mind-boggling, wonderful good news. I am more and more aware of how undeserving I am and how big the grace of God in Christ really is.
I am not so sure that the feeling is always connected to the reality. There are some who abide but do not ever get that full feeling of abiding, and there are some who feel they are abiding but are delusional. I am wary of talking much about feelings, as important as they are, when we talk about substance.
I am sorry to come off sounding so critical. I think this is a good post and a heartening one. God bless you and your household.
No problem. I wrote this post trying to push a little beyond my comfort zone. I tend by nature to be very rational, logical and analytical and suspect of feeling. I agree that feelings are not a good guide to truth but I do think that the Lord at times will grace us with a sense of His presence, as undeserved as that may be. However, if I only obeyed when it felt good, there would be lots of disobedience.
Thanks for commenting.
We are much alike and I agree. He may grace us with a sense of His presence, purely out of kindness to us. And my tendency is perhaps to err on the rationality side of the equation. Meanwhile, I will revisit your blog as time permits. Thank you.