A to Z Abiding in the Lord
A: Admiration, Awe, Awareness…
a moment by moment awareness of his closeness, omniopresence and your need for him.”
*What am I reading or studying, and “what do I sense He is saying to me through His Word?”
* Ask the Lord to reveal areas of sin, and people whom you have sinned against; True repentance involves three elements: Sorrow for our sin. Confession of it & mending it, making it right.
A sin inventory might ask: Where am I expressing retaliation, envy, malice, covetousness, insubordination, pride, distrust, envy, vanity, anger, stinginess, greed, gluttony, immodesty, laziness, lust, lack of disciplines, perversion. Take an inventory!
D: Dancing Unto The Lord:
Intercession examples: Abraham pleading for Sodom/Gomorrah
*I AM STATEMENTS out Ephesians 1, Colossians 1. In these abiding moments, we might say: I am…blessed…redeemed….reconciled to God….a child of God…Forgiven…and speaking out
J: Journaling to the Lord,
Theme of journaling: Think on what is right, good
*journaling what’s happening in my life- what am I glad about, what am I working through, What is God speaking? What am I reading? But also: WHO HE IS.
K: Kneeling/prostrate (reverent submission):
I love you ….i just love you…
R: Rest & Repentance *(Isaiah 30), Remembering & Recollecting;
What would it look like to spend 30 minutes ministering to the Lord on what He did from Adam to Christ? We may find he stops us along the narrative to point out something significant to our life
Rest: Not as much laying in bed, but taking time out…away….
Singing to the Lord songs of worship, hymns
SABBATH: A day of rest/abiding centered on worship of the Lord and life-giving agenda for your soul
T: Tongues, Trusting
Stirring up your zeal for the Lord
a moment by moment awareness of his closeness, omniopresence and your need for him.”
- “I see the Lord seated always before me, because he is at my right hand side”
- Psalm 139: You search me and you know, you know when I’m here…and when I make my bed there, if I settle on the far side of the sea…there you are.
*What am I reading or studying, and “what do I sense He is saying to me through His Word?”
- Colossians 1:9 filled/knowledge…His will
* Ask the Lord to reveal areas of sin, and people whom you have sinned against; True repentance involves three elements: Sorrow for our sin. Confession of it & mending it, making it right.
A sin inventory might ask: Where am I expressing retaliation, envy, malice, covetousness, insubordination, pride, distrust, envy, vanity, anger, stinginess, greed, gluttony, immodesty, laziness, lust, lack of disciplines, perversion. Take an inventory!
D: Dancing Unto The Lord:
- Dancing unto the Lord isn’t the sort of thing I expect for the men of the house
- 1 Samuel 30:6-8: “David encouraged himself in the Lord” “Strengthened himself”
- In other words- he talked to his own soul- “why are you downcast my soul?”
- Matthew 9: there will come a time when the bridegroom will be taken, then they will fast.
- Fasting displays a hunger for Him
- Guided prayer has advantages and guides listening/readings for prayers of fulfillment, morning prayers, mercy, by subject- apps like abide + others
- Gratitude leads to being content
- Job shows us honest dialogue
- I’m angry….I’m struggling with temptation in….I’m disappointed…
- I don’t feel you near…Where are you in all of this? There are times it’s hard to believe…
Intercession examples: Abraham pleading for Sodom/Gomorrah
*I AM STATEMENTS out Ephesians 1, Colossians 1. In these abiding moments, we might say: I am…blessed…redeemed….reconciled to God….a child of God…Forgiven…and speaking out
J: Journaling to the Lord,
Theme of journaling: Think on what is right, good
*journaling what’s happening in my life- what am I glad about, what am I working through, What is God speaking? What am I reading? But also: WHO HE IS.
K: Kneeling/prostrate (reverent submission):
- Daniel abided and prostrated himself in the Lord 3x daily, book of Daniel.
I love you ….i just love you…
- As a man of entry into going from shallows to depths when abiding
- John Eldredge says, when going from the shallows to the midlands or deep places, he usually starts with “I love you Lord, I just love you so much. I love you because..”
- Longing- being homesick for heaven, longing for fullness of God, the face to face with God; love to admit this to him. Earth has nothing for me…….it pales in comparison
- Admitting there’s an ache in my quiet place for the fullness of God that this earth can’t satisfy.
- “Better is 1 day in your courts”- King David
- Putting yourself into the verse, listening, pondering and imagining how this applies to you
- Goal? Ex: Memorizing Psalms 1-5…
- Goal? Ex: a verse from every book
- Goal? Ex: A verse from A-Z that start w/ each letter; This is an achievable goal that we can abide in, in quiet moments.
- “Fan into flame the gift of God”-2 Timothy 1:6
- The gift of the Holy Spirit
- Just like the picture of 1 of the 3 objects/types in the Holy Place of the desert Tabernacle: The lampstand; the priests were commanded to keep the flame alive, burning day and night
- Outdoors in the silence is a primary form of General revelation- God speaking through nature (verses specific revelation, revealing himself through his spoken word).
- Jesus is getting to the teaching about abiding/remaining in Him, which he says over 11 times, and in the teaching right before that he states 5 times, as part of abiding, that if we truly love him and abide in him, we will obey his teaching
- Sometimes the quiet place will demand of us quick obedience- to give up our savings account, or to call the person and make amends.
- Petitions for David…shall I go to war?........shall I do this or that? make war?
- “Make your petitions known to Him”
- PRAISE: (Declarations of him): Remember-God inhabits the praise of his people
- Let’s not avoid quietness like the plague;
- This phrase from Isiaiah 30: In quietness and trust is your strength
R: Rest & Repentance *(Isaiah 30), Remembering & Recollecting;
What would it look like to spend 30 minutes ministering to the Lord on what He did from Adam to Christ? We may find he stops us along the narrative to point out something significant to our life
- Or spend 30 minutes out-loud-verbally going through your own timeline chronologically and your salvation narrative, telling Him where you saw his faithfulness in the years; ex: each calendar year.
Rest: Not as much laying in bed, but taking time out…away….
- Cabin or place alone for the day to rest in your salvation
- For me (Pastor Michael), I try often set a daily & monthly tone of going away if possible; Yearly, I honor the day of my salvation with a planned time away in the Lord to rest in Him
Singing to the Lord songs of worship, hymns
SABBATH: A day of rest/abiding centered on worship of the Lord and life-giving agenda for your soul
T: Tongues, Trusting
- Unrushed times to pray in tongues (Romans 8; we know not what we ought to pray).
- “I’ll pray with my spirit, and also in my native tongue, I’ll sing in tongues, but also sing in my native tongue”
- Trust & obey for there’s no other way…
- Trust declarations: I’m leaving the job in obedience and I trust you….
- I don’t see how this is going to come together but I trust you…
- What is your “I trust you…inventory”
- This can look different for everyone, but a transparent opening up of our heart and soul to the Lord.
- Life long skill of listening for His voice and hearing what he is precisely saying in that moment
- His voice will always say or direct you to what aligns with his word
- 1 Kings 19: The Lord was not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire…but a still small voice.
- Psalm 29: All about the voice of the Lord
- Worship moments may look similar to “Y” category. I worship you because….
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith
- Lamentations 3:40- let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord
- Let a person examine themself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
- There are a number of self-assessments and self-reflection guided-prayers
- You are holy, sovereign over the earth
- You’re omni-present, omniscient, omnipotent,
- The faithful God who keeps his covenant, God who heals our diseases, who redeems our life from the pit
- The Word who dwells among us, who was/is/is to come
- The way, truth and the life
- I worship you for you are...
- Him through who all things were created
- Jesus- the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of the Father
- The one who sits upon the throne
- You are the only; apart from you there is NO GOD
- You are unmatchable, unfathomable
- Slow to anger, abounding in love
- The forgiver of sins, the payer of debts
- The owner of cattle/1000 hills
- The alpha, omega, beginning/end,
- The one who walks among the lampstands
Stirring up your zeal for the Lord