Abiding Makes You Unmovable
As a father, nothing is better than spending the day with your son. I think that is where the Holy Spirit speaks the most, when we allow ourselves to approach even what seems to be the insignificant moments of the day as a child. On the contrary, every moment of the day is bursting with expectation for Yahweh to speak.
Today, I took my 2-year-old son, Noah to his 6-month teeth cleaning. Walking in, I was instantly brought back to my childhood hearing the sounds of the cleaning equipment in the background, and the incense of tooth dust lingering in the air. As we walked back, I began to prep my son telling him, “Okay Noah, just like brushing at home, they are going to brush your teeth.”
When they came back to the room we were waiting in and brought the cleaning tools, you could see the nerves kick in. Through some tears, he powered through and they cleaned his teeth. We arrived home for lunch and I proceeded to tell him that I was so proud of how brave he was today. In that moment i heard the Holy Spirit say, “Noah doesn’t trust anyone that he doesn’t know anything about, that is why he feels unsafe. He trusts you because he knows you intimately as his father.”
It’s the same way with God. The reason why we have a difficult time trusting him when things seem out of hand is because there is no deep level of intimacy cultivated with him. If we do trust him it’s because we know him intimately and are living in present union with him.
Trusting and abiding are very similar, but one requires the other. They both require us to fully know the nature of the Father.
For the last year, i’ve found myself revisiting this verse as life presents me to trust more deeply:
“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever (Psalm 125:1 nkjv).
Trust makes us unshakable, but abiding makes us unmovable. Trusting is not an issue for those who are secure in beloved identity.
Why am I saying this to you? Because we can say that we trust God all day long because he is “trustworthy.” But deep down we should trust God because he IS God.
It is one thing to abide when things are easy and life is simple, but it is another thing to abide when things are chaotic. This is why the psalmist says those who trust in the Lord, abide forever. Our trust in Yahweh is a consequence of abiding. As we learn to abide or live in the so-called “life-union” with God, we are learning to trust in the continual discovery of his goodness.
Trust is not about our ability to do something. It’s about our willingness to surrender our life into the hands of Almighty Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth.
This is why my son can trust me. He knows that I am his father. He knows that I will be right there. He knows that when he sees me doing something, he can do that very thing as well. Jesus did nothing until he saw his Father doing it (John 5:19).
Trusting is simply about knowing the nature of God and abiding in that.
