In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me
Abide with me, abide with me
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (Jn. 6:56)
The child of God accepts the mountain-top experiences and the valleys encountered along life’s road. When he believes on and is nourished by the Lord, Jesus lives in him and he in Jesus. To concede to God is to accept fully that what He says is true. Genuine belief in the truth of God’s Word is to yield one’s will to His will. This doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time. . . a lifetime. In the children’s book, “The Velveteen Rabbit”, the Skin Horse wisely explains becoming Real to the young rabbit:
It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.
So it is with the child of God. It takes perseverance, patience, persistence. To willingly yield to God, not only in the mind but also in one’s actions, takes dedication. To unite one’s life to Scripture is to convince the heart what the mind already knows so the flesh can follow.
As we go through our days, we gradually learn to rely more on Jesus and less on ourselves. Will we have trials? Certainly. Will we be unsure and misled? More often than we would like. We have spent years yielding to the lusts and passions of our heart and flesh. It will take the rest of our life to unite our spirit with God’s Spirit. When the Divine awakens within our soul, the Holy Spirit gently guides and directs us. When our will accepts God’s will and His desire becomes our desire, we have eaten His flesh and drunk His blood. Our life becomes broken bread and poured out wine for those who know us.
Are you becoming real? Are you persevering through the mountains and valleys as you learn to rely on and abide in God’s Word, willing to accept what He has prepared for you today? Would you be willing to yield your will to His? As you become more Real, your life becomes a testimony to others. Let it be the cry of your heart this day, “In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me, abide with me, abide with me.”