Abide Then Abound
October 17, 2008
The meditation for today’s morning prayer (day 17) from Celtic Daily Prayer reads:
Here am I, Lord,
I’ve come to do Your will.
Here am I, Lord,
in Your presence I’m still.
This is perhaps the shortest and most simple of all of the morning meditation, yet it is one of most difficult, at least for me. First I ask myself, do I really come each day open and prepared to do God’s will? And second, am I truly still and present before God?
These questions led me to read again the two previous posts this week. Both Paul and Georges wrote about the necessity of slowing down and being fully engaged in the present. I would highly recommend reading “Present to the Present” and “Be There.” However, the meditation this morning also led me to consider the relationship between being still before the Lord and being prepared to do His will.
I remember hearing a message many years ago by John Ortberg where he talked about the biblical teaching to “abound” in God’s will for our lives (1 Cor. 15:58; Col 3:23) and to “abide” in his presence (John 15:4).
I remember struggling (in my head and in my life) as to how to find “balance” in these two exhortations. I came to realize, by experience, that the only way to discover the appropriate “balance” is to begin with abiding.
Now that may sound obvious, but rarely do we really live that way. In the past I have almost always started with abounding (especially in church planting efforts) and then I have tried to find some way to squeeze in a bit of abiding. Well, needless to say, working from that direction doesn’t work. When we start with abiding we will gain the energy, motivation, and most important the wisdom to know where, when and how much to abound.
Therefore, as we strive to live missionally in our workplaces, schools and neighborhoods we must begin by developing a rhythm that puts us in the position to first hear from the Lord. Our hope and prayer is that Missional Order can be an encouragement in helping you create such a rhythm.
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