March 16

Lord, help my child to abide in Your Love.  Manifest Your love to this child in a real way today and help him/her to receive it.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you:  continue ye in My love.  John 15:9 (Power of a Praying Parent, Stormie Omartian)

In the prayer above, the word 'ABIDE' kept jumping out at me.  Actually in the reference Mrs. Omartian uses, the latter part of the scripture is recorded as "abide in My Love", not "continue ye in My love".  But I could not find "abide" used in John 15:9 in either the King James Version or the New International Version (if you know the version used, please share).  So I delved into what the translation said about this word.  The word abide is from a Greek word 'meno' and the meaning is the same for the "continue ye".  As it is used in John 15:9, it means "not to depart--to be held, or kept, continually."  Jesus then goes on to tell us how 'not to depart from His love'...by keeping His commandments!  Jesus' commandments, not to be confused with the Ten Commandments, were always about love and compassion.  Don't be deceived; Jesus kept and followed the Ten Commandments, please don't think I'm saying otherwise.  Jesus commanded that "ye love one another, as I have loved you."  Jesus commanded that we judge not when He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."  Jesus commanded, if you love me, "Feed my sheep".  It is clear to me that love and abiding in love, are key to being kept by Jesus.

Heavenly Father, help our children to abide in your love daily.  Help us to show them Your love by the way we treat one another.  I speak to the obedience of every person that is capable of showing love and I pray submission on their part.  A smile, a hug, a card, a word of encouragement, a monetary blessing, whatever You have placed on their heart as a way to show love, let them give it cheerfully and let it return to them 100 fold.  As we abide in You, as our children abide in You and not depart from You; it is promised that You will hold us and keep us continually.  Wrap Your loving arms around us and let us abide.  In Jesus name, Amen!