Abide.

As I sat on the couch with our tired and restless, almost eight month old, daughter, I was filled with an overwhelming sense that this was utter bliss.  Perfection brought in the form of a child; that is, when she would sit still.  She fought the urge to cry and wiggle, only to cry more when I would put her down.  We finally put the toys away and I firmly hugged her against my chest and rubbed her back.  Comfort was found when she popped her thumb in her mouth and began sucking.  It took no more than five minutes before I was cuddling the cutest and sweetest, sleeping baby. 

I sat and held her for about twenty minutes, soaking in the moment; as this child now spends her moments crawling, standing, playing, and moving, moving, moving.  I was reminded of how the Father holds me and comforts me so often these days.  Time and time again, He has proven Himself faithful though He has no obligation to do so.  He must long for the moments that I will just rest in His presence and fully trust, allowing no room for doubt or fear to creep in.  All the while, waiting for me to stop fighting my insecurities and just believe. 

The God who created the universe is the same God; He has not changed.  He is just as faithful and just as able.  Yet, how easy it is to forget or let my fears cause me to doubt the Savior who just wants me to abide.  I realized I was just like the Isrealites I read about yesterday, that continuously saw God's hand at work and so quickly forgot who their Savior was when times got hard.

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.  Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, "They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.'  As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest.'"  Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God."  Hebrews 3:7-12 (ESV)

Sitting, holding our daughter, I pondered these things.  Two words spoke softly in my mind.  The first was to abide.  I thought, "How true."  The Lord just wants me to choose to "abide" putting all else aside and choosing to remain in Him. 

And then the word, held reminded me I was wrapped in the Father's loving embrace.  I also was being "held".  I first thought how different the words were, that I did not give Riley the choice to be held but I could choose to abide in the Father.  And then I realized how alike they were.  The Father does not force us to be held.  And, Riley, fought her way out of my arms so many times.  Utter perfection only came when she chose to be comforted by my loving arms. 

Wondering if I just thought of these words on my own, I looked them up in Strong's Concordance. In reference to place, abide means, "to be held, kept, continually" and in reference to time it means, "to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure".  How beautiful and perfect.  The Father wants us to abide in Him as he tells us in the book of John, "abide in me"; meaning stay with me always so that I can hold you.  We never need to leave the Father's arms; it is our choice when we become anxious.

Abiding in our Savior does mean to remain in Him.  But it also means choosing to be held in His steadfast arms at all times, trusting in His sovereign plan even when you want to question His plan, curse Him, doubt He is able, or weep in angry bitterness.  Choose the Father today.  Let the Him hold His child in utter bliss by choosing to abide in Him.