Abide, Don’t Visit

There is a subtle misunderstanding that quietly shapes much of Christian life.
It is the belief that relationship with God is something believers go to.

You approach Him.
You return to Him.
You visit Him in prayer, worship, Scripture, or moments of need.

But Jesus never spoke of relationship this way.

He did not say, “Come to Me repeatedly.”
He said, “Abide in Me.”

Abiding is not movement toward God.
It is remaining where you already are.

A healed soul no longer needs to travel inward to find God.
A whole soul no longer needs to access Him through moments, disciplines, or states.

God does not live at the end of effort.
He is not reached through intensity.
He is not found by approach.

He is the dwelling place.

Many believers still relate to God as though He lives elsewhere.
Prayer becomes a doorway.
Worship becomes a meeting place.
Scripture becomes a bridge.

These are not wrong.
But they are incomplete.

They are expressions of relationship, not its location.

When relationship is treated as something visited, the soul remains subtly restless.
There is an unspoken sense of arrival and departure.
Of closeness gained and closeness lost.
Of connection that must be renewed through activity.

But Jesus spoke of something far more settled.

He spoke of remaining.
Of making one’s home in Him.
Of life flowing not from encounters, but from residence.

This is why abiding feels so different from striving.

Striving assumes distance.
Abiding assumes nearness.

Striving asks, “How do I get back to God?”
Abiding knows, “I never left.”

When the soul has been healed and integrated, God does not invite it to work harder at intimacy.
He invites it to stop relocating.

Relationship matures when the soul realises that God is not someone you return to after distraction.
He is the place you live from, even while distracted.

You do not fall out of abiding because you lose focus.
You fall into striving when you forget where you live.

Abiding does not require awareness to function.
It does not collapse when attention wanders.
It is not sustained by effort.

It is sustained by union.

This is why peace deepens when the soul stops checking whether it is close to God.
Closeness is no longer something to monitor.
It is the environment itself.

God does not ask for more visits.
He invites you to recognise your address.

You are not coming and going.
You are remaining.

And from this place, everything else flows.