If you’re a tea drinker, you’ll know that there’s an art to making good tea. You can dip your teabag up and down in the hot water a few times. Or you can let it stay there so that you can experience the tea’s full strength and flavour. Jesus said: ‘Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’ (vv.4-5 NIV). In the same way that letting a teabag remain, or dwell, in the water makes the tea stronger, when we dwell in the presence of God our faith becomes stronger, we become stronger. Dwelling in God’s presence is an idea that’s in the Bible, especially in the Psalms. Psalm 26 says: ‘Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever’ (v.6 NIV). And Psalm 84 says: ‘Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you’ (v.4 NIV). Living life as a Christian isn’t about ‘dipping’ in God’s presence once a week in church, but ‘dwelling’ in it every day. We need to remain in God in order to remain fruitful and to move forward in our spiritual lives. It’s the depth and duration of our dwelling that determines the strength and richness of our spiritual lives.

What Now?

Make a cup of tea (or make one for someone else if you don’t drink it). Let the tea bag stay in the water for a while, and as you wait, ask God to help you desire to spend more time dwelling in His presence.