Abiding in Christ

I'm currently reading a book by Andrew Murray called, "Abide in Christ: Your Guide to Unspeakable Joy." I've been reading it for a couple weeks and I'm only about 25 pages in...not because I'm a slow reader, but because this book is packed with powerful one-liners. I feel like I read a sentence and it takes a few hours for my heart and mind to catch up with what God wants to teach me. I have to meditate on his words and give them time to work me. So...I thought I'd share a few sound bites with you. Andrew Murray says:

"Abiding in Him is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us, and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us - the fruit and the power of His redeeming love. Our part is to simply yield, to trust, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform." 

"Abide in me: These words are no law of Moses, demanding from the sinful what they cannot perform. They are the command of love, which is ever only a promise in a different shape. Think of this until all feeling of burden and fear and despair pass away, and the first thought that comes as you hear of abiding in Jesus be one of bright and joyous hope: it is for me, I know I shall enjoy it. You are not under the law, with its inexorable DO, but under grace, with its blessed Believe what Christ will do for you. and if the question be asked, "But surely there is something for us to do?" the answer is, "Our doing and working are but the fruit of Christ's work in us." It is when the soul becomes utterly passive, looking and resting on what Christ is to do, that its energies are stirred to their highest activity, and that we work most effectually because we know that He works in us."

And lastly, these are the words I spent the most time on yesterday. Murray quotes Philippians 3:12, which says, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus." He then goes on to say:

"This connection between Christ's work and our work is beautifully expressed [in this verse]. It was because he (Paul) knew that the mighty and the faithful One had grasped him with the glorious purpose of making him one with Himself, that he did his utmost to grasp the glorious prize. 

  Paul's expression, and its application to the Christian life, can best be understood if we think of a father helping his child to mount the side of some steep precipice. The father stands above, and has taken the son by the hand to help him on. He points him to the spot on which he will help him to plant his feet, as he leaps upward. The leap would be too high and dangerous for the child alone; but the father's hand is his to trust, and he leaps to get hold of the point for which his father has taken hold of him. It is the father's strength that secures him and lifts him up, and so urges him to use his utmost strength.

  Such is the relationship between Christ and you, O weak and trembling believer! Fix first your eyes on the whereunto for which He has apprehended you. It is nothing less than a life of abiding, unbroken fellowship with Himself to which He is seeking to lift you up." 

Love this.