“We cannot love faithfully unless we are abiding in His love.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – June 9, 2026
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:9-11
The western world is experiencing a rampant rise in those choosing a single, child-free lifestyle. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the simple and honest reason for the trend is that family life is the antithesis to personal freedom. On paper, the trade-off looks like a no-brainer: give up travel, ambition, career, relaxation and a host of other personal perks, and in return gain a life of self-sacrifice and exhaustion. Those of us blessed with spouse and children can attest that marriage and children pushes a person, not to his or her limits, but well beyond them. After all, love is a verb and no verb demands more of body and soul. Don’t we all feel at times that it would be so much easier not to love?
How do we keep going forward in love when we are weary and drained to our dregs? When one more late-night rocking the baby, one more week of tending a sick child, one more need not met by a spouse adds up to a mountain too high for our weary souls to take even another step?
The answer from Christ comes in one word: Abide. No one knows the demands of love better than our Lord and Savior, and he shares his secret for pressing on in love. How often he slipped away to be with the Father; and when he couldn’t slip away, his communion with God still never faltered. If I have any hope of following in his footsteps in a life poured out in love, I must draw near to the Father over and over again each day until it’s as natural as breathing. I need his Words of life to inspire me, his Holy Spirit’s breath invigorating me to good works, his mercy lifting me up and dusting me off when I fail. In short, I must abide, for only in abiding in his love can I be filled up as continuously as I am being poured out. And here is the wonderful surprise that can’t be shown on paper but must be experienced first-hand: only when we pour ourselves out in love and find ourselves filled up again by Love himself do we experience true joy and freedom to the fullest. Abiding in his love frees us to love without fear or reservation.
Prayer
Lord of love, teach me to abide in your love. You are the fount that never runs dry; may I, jar of clay that I am, be a conduit of your eternal love to those you’ve given me to love. Amen.
Application
Does pouring out your love in service to your family feel joyless at times? In those moments, stop and draw near to the Lord. Refresh yourself in his love daily, even if for a moment’s time.
Related Reading
John 13:34-35; 15:1-5, 9-13; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Colossians 3:13-14
Worship Resource
Keith and Kristyn Getty: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
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