Are we truly in Him? It is one of those questions we assume we have already answered, right up until the moment we are asked to sit with it honestly. Many of us came to Christ for good reasons and for reasons that were not so good: for hope, for reward, for the comfort of belonging somewhere, for the relief of guilt finally being lifted, or simply because that is how we were raised and what the people around us expected. None of these reasons are shameful in themselves. They are often exactly how the Lord draws us in the first place. But let us be honest, for a moment, about what the Word actually says once we are in.

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked (1 John 2:6, NKJV).

That is not a suggestion: we must abide in Him, and abiding is not a feeling we carry or a title we claim, but a life that bears fruit because it is grafted into the Vine. Outside of that grafting, John tells us plainly, we can bear no fruit at all: we are cut off, useless, destined for the fire. It is a hard word, and it is meant to be, because the alternative, drifting through faith without ever truly abiding, is far harder still.

So let us ask the question underneath the question. If we are truly resting in Him, do we walk like Jesus walked? What does it actually mean to walk like Jesus?

He did not pursue His own glory, but the glory of the Father. He did not seek to please the crowd. He spoke the truth even when it offended the very people He most wanted to reach. He did not long for ministry the way we tend to picture it today, platforms and stages and applause; He longed instead for intimate fellowship with the handful who had given everything to walk beside Him. He did not indulge in the comforts the world calls ordinary: a home to rest in, a holiday to look forward to, possessions gathered for their own sake. He lived on daily bread, trusting the Father’s power to provide exactly what was needed in exactly that moment, and not a moment before. And He showed mercy to those society had already thrown aside to beg: He healed them, He restored them, and He extended a compassion that cost Him something every time He gave it.

How much of this do we actually do, or even see around us, today? If we are honest, not much: so often we do not abide in Him for Him, but seek Him instead for what we can gain. Seeking Him and seeking what He gives are not the same pursuit at all, however similar they can look from the outside.

The Lord’s heart is for those who seek Him purely for Him, and for nothing else, a pure, first love, with no second motive hiding behind it, and that is exactly what matters so much to Him. When you truly encounter the real Jesus, nothing else compares. You give it all away freely, because freely you have received. You embrace whatever He calls you to, willingly, not because you have to but because you want to. You find joy even in suffering, and you find joy in solitude too, because solitude only ever means more private time with Him, real fellowship with the living God, not a substitute for it. Your comfort is found in Him alone, and you remain satisfied regardless of your circumstances, because you have Him, and having Him has always been enough.

When you truly have Him, you will walk like Him. There is no greater experience available to us in this life than walking in the embrace of His presence, His joy, and His love for us; nothing the world offers comes close, and nothing we could build for ourselves would last as long.

In the weeks ahead, now is the time to build our oil, and now is the time to press in deeper, further than we have gone before. A day is coming when we will need to know, beyond question, that we are walking as He walked.

Prepare yourselves.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.