Inhabiting Your Belovedness

Posted on by Jennifer Arimborgo

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“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…” (John 15:9-10, NKJV).

You and I need to spend a generous amount of time with this breathtaking Scripture. We cannot settle for a microwave version of this one. It’s simply not rushable. We legitimately need to take some long soaks in these words.

Do you see that? Jesus just told you and me that He loves us exactly like the Father loves Him – the same way, the same amount, the same intensity, the same tenderness, the same passion, the same blissful enjoyment, the same exquisite affection… This is flabbergasting. Words fail to say just how flabbergasting.

And then He continues, “Abide in My love.” Come, live in it. Dwell in it. Make your home right here in your belovedness. This is the essence of abiding in Him: learning how to inhabit the place of our belovedness.

He is so kind, so generous. He makes sure to explain how to do this, with His next breath: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…” Keeping His commandments. This does not mean jumping through hoops to get special access to closeness with Him. It does not mean racking up brownie points by “being good,” in the hopes of earning His approval. Earning His approval is not necessary. You already have it. Right now, He profoundly approves of who you are. He really, really likes you.

What does it mean then? Jesus is describing for us a posture of yieldedness and dependency. He adds, “…just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (v. 10b).

He showed us how. He lived His life on earth in utter, constant dependency on Daddy God. He did nothing on His own. He did not speak one word that He didn’t first hear bubbling up from His Abba’s heart. He did not heal one sick person that Abba didn’t point Him to (John 5:19; 14:10). Absolutely everything He did was an expression of yieldedness to the Father’s directives and empowering. His heart cry, “Thy will be done” was not an isolated event at Gethsemane. It was His lifestyle.

A lifestyle of surrender is a lifestyle of intimacy. We live close to His heart. Entwined with Him, we hear His words communicated to us, Spirit-to-spirit. The movement of His Spirit inside of us directs our every step with utmost tenderness. When we live like this, we inhabit our belovedness. We perpetually walk deeper into His heart. We perpetually learn in increasing measures that we are the one that He loves.

Pause and listen one more time. Linger with this for as long as you can today: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…” (John 15:9-10, NKJV).

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Is the love of God a general, overarching concept to you, where you know “God so loved the world”; or is it intimate to you? Do you know in your heart that He deeply loves you, personally?

20 thoughts on “Inhabiting Your Belovedness”

  2. Oh Jenn, thank you for this! We as people tend to measure love by the parameters we know, and no matter how wonderful the love of spouse, child, etc. is to us, it is but a shadow of the love Jesus is telling us about and living out. God’s perfect love! And He gives it to us at no cost. He has paid for it all with His sacrifice. Forgive me Lord when I have been too distracted to properly thank you for your amazing gift of love.
    Blessings,
    Chuck

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  4. This is wonderful, Jennifer. I love the way you fleshed out those two verses with explanation and emotion–much to ponder and respond to here, which I intend to do! (John 15:1-17 is one of my favorite passages of the Bible!)

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    1. Aw, Linda, I just took a picture of your comment to keep it, because it blessed me so much! I think you must have a gift of encouragement 🙂 ❤ (The late reply is because I was on vacation for the last couple weeks — had preprogrammed the devos that came out during that time on my site. I hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving!)

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  7. I am learning more each day that leaning into God’s love makes each day better. Some days will be tougher than others, but His love is always there. Thank you for sharing, words that help today. ♥

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      3. It was mostly good. Can be tough when spending time with mum and dad, for communication between them and with us as their children is not always the best. But it is always time well spent, for it is clear they live with love in their hearts. 😊

        How was your Christmas Jennifer?

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      4. I am sorry to hear that it can be tough like that. But amen to it being time well spent, that is SO true. You get to shine with Jesus’ light in your family! Thank you for asking, my Christmas was a blessed time. Here in Peru we celebrate on Christmas Eve, so I was up until 2:00 am, hours past my usual bedtime, but it was fun!

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