Wrap the potato in aluminum foil. Preheat the oven. Stick the wrapped potato into the oven. How easy is that? Only two ingredients: potato and aluminum. After it’s cooked, you can add butter, or sour cream, or whatever else to taste. If you follow this recipe, you will probably end up with yucky potatoes. The most important parts, temperature and time, are missing from the recipe! Oven conditions are as important as the ingredients!
The Bible also has a simple recipe in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, then are you truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” What is the ingredient to being a disciple of Jesus, knowing the truth, being set free? Simply abiding in His word.
Abiding is the difficult part, however, just like the oven is for baking a potato. First, we need to read the word. In overly busy lives, this is usually crossed off the to-do list. Then we must go beyond reading – figure out what the text means and apply it to our lives. Some teachings are easy to live – glorifying God, gathering on Sunday, etc. Others are very tough and are called the meat of the Bible: forgiving others, turning the other cheek, etc. Abiding in the word means we don’t pick and choose the easy parts, but living both the easy and hard parts in our lives. Abiding in the word is a simple ingredient with many moving parts.
Do you want to abide in Jesus’ word? Do you want the promises of John 8:31-32? Let’s sit down over an open Bible and abide in His word, together.
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