Lord Jesus,

It’s not a word we use very often these days: 

“abide.” 

I even had to look it up. 

It turns out we mostly use it to mean “tolerate,” 

as in, “I can’t abide kale,” 

which is pretty clearly not what you meant 

when you used it nine times in John 15. 

According to Merriam-Webster.com, 

it means to “remain stable or fixed in a state.”

We are to abide in you as a branch is fixed firmly to the vine. 

When we abide in you, 

we bear much fruit. 

When we don’t abide in you, 

we can do “nothing,” 

because our efforts are fruitless (John 15:4-5).

We are to abide in your love 

and in your commandments (John 15:9-10), 

which stabilize and center us in a world 

where love often comes and goes 

like daily tides on the shore.

Your words are to abide in us, 

and when they do, 

they so fix us to your will 

that we pray for the things you pray for, 

especially that our Father may be glorified (John 15:7-8). 

Today, Lord Jesus, fix us to you like super-glue.

that we may bear the fruit of loving one another, 

so that others too may know and abide 

in your love and mercy (John 15:16-17).  

In your abiding name. Amen.

Read John 15:1-17.