This summer my husband gave me 24 glorious hours by myself to rest. I was trying to recover from a very painful season in ministry. During my time away I read Scripture, listened to a sermon, took an epsom salt bath and prayed. I sat outside and journalled but still towards the end of my time away, I still felt this nagging anxiety trapped in my body. I decided to do a workout video. And would you believe it was as I stretched and listened to the instructor that it hit me?
She said something like, “are you feeling love?” I was about to roll my eyes at what felt touchy-feely….when the Spirit stopped me. “So, Aylin… are you?” He gently showed me how not once that day had I considered my Father’s love for me.
Rest had eluded me when I anxiously focused on rest. But as the Spirit enabled me to take hold of his love by faith, I felt my body finally relax.
This series is about teaching our kids to abide in love, more specifically in the Father’s love. It is as we keep believing in His unstoppable love that we are home, no matter where we are, or how difficult our circumstances.
But, friends – it will be hard for us to model our parenting after the Father’s, if we are not secure in his love. As my husband says, “the ministry he does in us is the one he wants to do through us.” Are you receiving the ministry of the Spirit assuring you of the Father’s love?
My problem that day hadn’t been the Word itself – as if it wasn’t enough or the wrong place to meet Christ. The issue was with the heart that approached the word. I had been abiding in performance, caring for myself as an orphan.
In Greek, to abide means to remain, to live, to stay, to continue. Abiding in Christ is so much more than reading Scriptures and praying. I had done both those things that day, but I hadn’t done them in faith – believing that I was one with Christ or that my Father was for me. I had given into thinking if I did the right things, peace would come. But peace didn’t come until the Spirit reminded me it wasn’t about what I did but what He did.
I was already home – dearly loved and dearly delighted in.
Day 2// Abide in 💛
Aylín Merck 