Where Do You Live?

by Ann Musico
(Wallkill, NY)

There's a commercial for an insurance company that urges people to “get to a better State today.” I was thinking about that and it made me ask myself the question that titles this post.

You hear people talk about being in a “state” of panic, confusion, fear, anxiety, disbelief, discouragement, exhaustion, upheaval.

I know we have all visited some or all of those states at one time or another. But where do you LIVE? That's different. Being a visitor and a resident are two very different things. In John 15:4 in the New King James version it says, “ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

I looked up 'abide' in the Practical Word Studies in the New Testament and in this scripture here's what it said: “It is being set and fixed and remaining there. It is continuing on and on in a fixed state, condition or being.” It also means to tabernacle, dwell, remain, live and nest. I especially liked the idea of nesting.

So it made me ask myself honestly – where do I live? I certainly don't want to nest in any of those places I mentioned above. I would rather live with the Lord – and that would be in a state of righteousness, grace, peace, faith, hope, wholeness, trust and newness of life.

Where you choose to live consistently (and it is a choice we make daily) is one of the most powerful predictors of whether we will live a long, healthy life or not.

So I ask again, where do you live?