Abiding

Mary's personal notes revealed the new level she had reached during an Encounter weekend at her church. Her own words are quoted here:
Thursday morning and I am learning to abide in Christ. It means to have faith and trust and be carried by God, abiding in his shelter, and resting in the shadow of his wing. No one can understand these words until they have actually experienced this. It started at the Encounter where I felt fear at the move of trust I was taking and yet slipped into it there during a troubling situation. Despite what was going on I trusted in a promise- as if fulfilled. It was standing in that place of accomplished faith that was quite scary. It didn’t last long. It was like making a decision to jump over a big hole, a precipice. It happened so quickly but once on the other side I hardly knew what happened until these recent days when I am learning what it is to walk in a faith that was finished on the cross. It is a done deal.
It was a gift from the encounter. I walked away having received this grace that came like a whisper but that loudly presents itself in each crisis situation. It is new territory for me. Oh, I have walked in what I thought was faith before but now it is hedged in the protective cloak of God’s promises. It carries a confidence not there before of God’s word being true, to be tested, and found excellent in all ways. Despite this testing it always abides in the buoyancy (if there can be such a thing taken from the cross of Christ) of Jesus’ final words “it is finished” utterly suggesting our completed salvation work. That really just begins our faith walk. In that statement all loyalty must reside, in that moment comes any and all resilient trust.