Abide || July 18
Why We Keep Trying to Earn What Has Already Been Given
The world will spend all week telling you who you need to become. Every Saturday morning, we’ll remember who you already are in Christ. Friend, welcome back to Abide.
A few weeks ago, I caught myself doing something I have done more times than I can count. (Not that I can count very high, math is NOT my strong suit, but you get the point.)
I had finished reading my Bible, spent time in prayer, checked several things off my to-do list, and felt surprisingly...accomplished. Not because I had spent time with Jesus. Because I had done a “good job.” It is amazing how quickly my heart can turn even good things into another measuring stick for my worth.
Maybe you know that feeling too.
We know, intellectually, that God’s love cannot be earned. We could probably quote Ephesians 2:8-9 without looking it up. We believe salvation is by grace. We would never tell someone else they have to perform for God.
Yet somehow we quietly hold ourselves to a different standard.
We believe God loves us, but perhaps He’ll love us a little more if we’re more disciplined. A little more patient. A little more productive. A little more consistent. We don’t usually say those things out loud. We simply live as though they are true.
I don’t think striving always looks dramatic. Most of the time, it looks incredibly respectable. It looks like checking every spiritual box, saying yes to every opportunity to serve, staying busy for God, and quietly believing He must be more pleased with us on the days we do it all well. We would never call it earning His love. We’d probably call it “being faithful.”
But sometimes our faithfulness slowly becomes performance without us even noticing.
I wonder if that’s because we are so used to living in a world where everything meaningful has to be earned. Good grades earn acceptance into college. Hard work earns promotions. Discipline earns results. Performance earns applause. Before long, we begin categorizing our relationship with God must in the same way.
Except it doesn’t work that way.
That’s why Jesus’ invitation to abide feels so different. He never says, “Come to Me once you’ve had a really good week.” He never says, “Remain in My love after you’ve finally gotten your act together.”
He simply says, “Abide in Me.”
Not because we’ve earned the invitation - Because He extended it before we could even do anything.
I’ve been realizing lately that one of the hardest parts of following Jesus is not believing that He loves other people. It’s believing that He loves me on the ordinary Tuesday afternoon when I don’t feel particularly spiritual. When I’m distracted. When I lose my patience. When my quiet time wasn’t profound. When I still have questions.
Those are often the moments I find myself drifting back toward striving, almost as though Jesus is standing on the other side of my performance, waiting for me to catch up.
But the Gospel tells a completely different story. Jesus isn’t asking us to climb our way back into His love every morning. He’s inviting us to wake up already there.
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.” - Lamentations 3:22-24 (NIV)
I think that’s what abiding really is. Not trying harder to get closer to Jesus, but learning to stay where His grace has already placed us.
Remaining instead of reaching.
Resting instead of proving.
Returning instead of performing.
Now, that doesn’t make obedience less important. It simply changes the reason we obey.
We don’t pursue holiness so that God will finally delight in us. We pursue holiness because we are already loved by the One who delights in us. Prayer becomes less about checking a box and more about spending time with our Father. Scripture becomes less about accomplishing a reading plan and more about hearing the voice of the One who knows us. Even repentance changes. Instead of running from God in shame, we run toward Him because we know His mercy is waiting for us there.
It even changes failure - Failure is no longer evidence that we’ve lost God’s affection. It’s simply another opportunity to return to the One who never stopped loving us in the first place.
Maybe today you need the same reminder I needed this week.
You don’t have to earn what Jesus has already given. You don’t have to prove what the cross has already declared. You don’t have to spend another day striving for the love that has been yours all along.
Just come back.
Abide.
Keep walking with Jesus, friends.
bytaylormcgee
