SELECT COMMENTARY
Yet God is a God of relationship. He is a God of communion, and He longs to be close to you. He appreciates the occasional biggies you do for Him, but much more, He desires your consistent obedience and ever-deepening relationship. He wants to know you truly love and value Him—not just for what He can do for you, but for who He is.
God longs for you to fully live out the plan and destiny He has created for you. But that can happen only in the context of a relationship with Him.
In Scripture, that’s called “abiding,” and it is one of the most strategic and satisfying things you could ever do.
Tony Evans, Called for a Purpose
Verse 7. – In this verse he returns once more on the principle of union with himself, and of what will come out of it. The disciples may be sorely distressed at this possible doom, for whatever may be the lot of those who do not obey the gospel and are ignorant of the Law of God, the curse here uttered fails heavily upon those who have been once enlightened, etc., and have apostatized (Hebrews 6:4-6). The anxiety of the apostles ]s grievous, and they desire deliverance from this doom. And our Lord next unfolds the principle of prayer which laid such hold on the mind of the Apostle John: If ye abide in me (and then, instead of adding, “And I abide in you,” he says); and my words abide in you; i.e. if my teaching so abide with you as to control your thoughts and ideas, remain in you as your guide and inspiration, then ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done to you. A timid interpretation of this promise limits the “whatsoever” to deeds of service in the kingdom of God, and fears, with Augustine, to trust the sanctified will of the believer. But in such harmony with Christ as these words supply, all the conditions of acceptable prayer are present.
The believer in Christ, full of his words, evermore consciously realizing union with Christ, charged with the thoughts, burning with the purposes, filled with words of Jesus, will have no will that is not in harmony with the Divine will. Then faith is possible in the fulfillment of his own desire, and prayer becomes a prophecy and pledge of the answer. The apostle, after many years of pondering and of putting these principles into practice, confirms the truth of them (1 John 5:14-16). This is the true philosophy of prayer. The psalmist had gone a long way in the same direction (Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself in the Lord; and he shall give thee thy heart’s desire”).
Pulpit Commentary
My Pondering
What does it mean to abide?
It such a appropriate word and the center of relationship mark. It is means a lot yet is so simple. It is to willfully prepare and place your soul in the presence of God by patiently welcoming His Spirit to rest upon your spirit. We are encouraged to ‘be still and know that I am God’. It is by truth and spirit do we know and worship God. By practicing the tried and true spiritual disciplines while exercising our faith, may we abide.
A ship abides upon the ocean.
A sparrow abide upon a branch.
A baby abides upon its mother’s breast.
A tired body abides upon his bed.
A doctor abides upon science and nature.
A sick person abides upon medicine, time and sometimes a miracle.
A high performance athlete abides in the zone.
A Christian abides in Christ by the Spirit for the Father by prayer, fasting, meditation, service, worship, and inculcation of the Word.
To abide is to trust, rest, relax, indwell, abode, float, endure, shalom, center, connect, and just be.
It is what we were ultimately designed for. To live, love, move, relate and have our being in God. To see and do what we can and trust by faith what we can’t. To know that i, by myself, am not but since I know the great I AM therefore I have all that I need, that I am enough because God is more than enough. To rest in His love, to respond to His love because He first loved me, died on Cross for me, and remains on the right hand of the Father for me and thee, that is quite sufficient, true legitimacy and the ultimate deed of love.
By that love, in that love, for that love, do I will all my heart, soul, body, mind and strength to abide?
Less of old me, denying my sinful flesh makes more provision for God’s presence in my new and ever improving new man. By abiding, we believing disciples of Christ surely grow and ever-renew with abundant fruit from the Source of life.
Pondering Life : Pursuing God 