004: Words have power

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” - 1 John‬ ‭4:15‬

There are power in words. So it makes sense that confessing something with words would carry weight. In this case John tells us that if we confess that Jesus is the Son of God that God will abide in us and we in him. This is a huge concept.

In the Bible, abide means to dwell in, to become a part of. In John 15, where we read even more about abiding in God, the illustration given is that of a vine where we become one with the vine. To abide in God is to be grafted into him, to become one with him, to receive our sustenance and life from him. It also means that we die apart from him.

This is one example of why our words matter so deeply. If we confess, or speak out loud with conviction, that Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of the universe comes to dwell with us.

What a powerful exchange.

We acknowledge Jesus as the saving Son of God and all that this truth entails by speaking it aloud and God shows up in our lives as an integral part that we have been missing. We don’t have to earn it, we don’t have to fake it, and we don’t have to deserve it. We just get to accept it.