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Farmer's Market Quilt by Bennilover
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"...while every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful."         John 15:2 NIV

We don't usually ring in the New Year with thoughts of pruning and discipline. No, it's usually rung in with celebration, feasting, dancing and dreams of prosperity. More, if you will, than the previous year.

More. It's my One Word for 2019 that God's given me to focus on. More. "More what?" I asked.

"More 'becoming.' More good fruit," was God's reply.

Look for the rainbow

If you're joining me from Encouragement Cafe, today...Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by.

Look for the rainbow, and remember My promise. With it I sign the covenant I have made between Me and all the living creatures residing on the earth. Genesis 9:17 (The Voice)

Thousands of meticulously pruned grapevines dotted the valley as we traveled north towards Mendocino, California one misty morning. Having harvested grapes at our local vineyard years ago, God reminded me of John 15:4-5:

Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. 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. (NIV)

I’d been asking God big questions that day like, “What’s next?” or “Where do you want me to serve you, Lord?” Like the past, He gave me the same one word answer, “Abide.” Simply abide—to remain with, continue, and stay or to have one’s abode; to dwell or reside—with Him. Jesus promises if we make our home with him, he will make his home in us and if we remain in Him, we will bear much fruit. It’s a double promise, so wonderfully illustrated by the vineyards.

Home with Jesus is where we live perfectly loved by the One who created us and knit us together in our mother’s womb. With Jesus, we’re encouraged to be our truest selves—the person He created us to be, despite the reality of our earthly home. Abiding is a matter of the heart—where Jesus lives—not a physical place.

And then, through our loving relationship, we will bear much fruit. We don’t bear fruit through striving or demanding or wishing. We only produce fruit by remaining attached to Jesus and being ourselves—just like a grape branch only bears grapes because it’s attached to the grape vine. It doesn’t wish for fruit, or jump through hoops to produce fruit. It just stays attached to the vine and produces grapes—the fruit God created it to produce.

If these vineyards weren’t reminder enough of God’s great promise, he punctuated the lesson with seven rainbows. Yes, seven gorgeous rainbows pierced through the mist that morning. I “ooed and ahhhed and giggled” like a giddy little girl whose daddy was lavishing his love on her.

And then…then God really showed off—around the last turn, outstretched over the vineyards was a fully arched double rainbow! The largest rainbow (or double rainbow) I’d ever witnessed. For this, I had no words, just awe—awe for God’s majesty in creation and His signature covenant. I love how it’s worded in The Voice:

“Look for the rainbow, and remember My promise. With it I sign the covenant I have made between Me and all the living creatures residing on the earth.” Genesis 9:17

Look for the rainbow and remember my promise. What better reminder of his promises in John 15 than an outstretched double rainbow over those vineyards? He promises to be a good vinedresser—to care for those of us who make our home in him—so that we will bear much fruit. The fruit He created us to produce.

When we find our ministry calendars overflowing with little fruit to show, will we take the time to stop and simply make room for Jesus? Will we stop and look for the rainbow and remember God’s promise to us—that if we make our home in him he will make his home in us?

Abba, create in us the desire to make our home with you. Remind us daily of your promise that if we make our home in you, you WILL make your home in us. Help us to accept your love that only wants the best for us—the kind of love that helps us to become who YOU created us to be. Amen

S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E - It isn't easy

If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at Encouragement Cafe, WELCOME!   So glad you are here!

Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out: “Papa, Father, you can—can’t you?—get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want—what do you want?” Mark 14:35-36 MSG 

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve my one word S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E activated like a Cinderella spell, barely a week since God dropped it into my heart.

I tried to shake it off like a wet dog after a bath, but it wouldn’t leave. Sacrifice didn’t conjure up those fuzzy, warm, feel-good emotions like grace or faith or prayer. No, after a year of tremendous loss, sacrifice was the hardest word to accept because I already felt given-out. What more? What more could I possibly give? I felt exhausted, wrung out, spent and ungrateful and the New Year was only seconds old. 

Days later, I hunkered down for a relaxing winter’s night before we froze under the polar vortex headed our way. Another crisis came and I went out again; called to sacrifice and serve.

During short breaks, I closed my eyes and rocked silently in my own grief while my heart froze like the pipes beneath my mother’s house. This sacrifice was hard and painful. My hands and feet served until my nerves shook me to the bone and my ingratitude ground me to a pulp. Worn down, I prayed God would melt those frozen pipes, let the waters flow and release me from that place. Hours passed, and just when I thought God fell deaf, release came. Flowing water never sounded so good—like cascading waterfalls—from every faucet.  

Homeward bound on those darkened country roads, words from a familiar childhood hymn drifted from the stereo, melting my ingratitude. “Are we weak and heavy laden cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.”  

Tears I’d bravely suppressed spilled everywhere—my own heart’s release—and I cried that sloppy, blubbering, snotty cry all the way home. And when the tears stopped flowing, I wondered if I’d failed the test. Did I sacrifice well? Did I really offer up my best to the Lord in all I did this week, or had my ingratitude nullified my offering?  

Before my heart could punctuate the question, God’s answer came. “Well done. You obeyed and did the hard and painful things. You would fail only if you had ignored my calling and stayed comfortable.” 

“But, Lord, I grumbled inside. I asked for relief. How is that serving well?”

“Even Jesus asked for the cup to pass, didn’t he? But when it didn’t pass, he drank. He went where I called him to go. He sacrificed—gave until it hurt—out of obedience to his Father. And so did you.” 

Sacrifice—the offering of all we are and all we do—to the Lord is hard and often painful or it wouldn’t be called sacrifice. I can’t say I’m excited about this word, nor have I fully embraced it, but my heart is listening and drawing nearer and nearer to God's throne because it calls for strength beyond my own.

Ah, yes. Maybe that. Maybe it’s all that—the drawing nearer to God—whatever it takes, until Heaven’s waters flow. When we surrender everything to God, we gain even more—God’s favor, authority, glory, salvation, eternal life.

Do you find yourself in the midst of a hard sacrifice? Maybe it’s been a long year of hard sacrifices and God’s calling for more. If you feel you’ve given all you have to give, take heart, Jesus is there to strengthen you, to walk along side you and encourage you. Call on His name and He will draw near to you.

Prayer: Heavenly Papa, draw near to us, especially when the sacrifice is hard and we feel spent. Teach us to draw upon the strength of Jesus. And Papa? When we pray for the hard cup of sacrifice to pass us by, let our hearts’ desires to line up with yours. Not our will, but yours, Papa. Amen.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Romans 12:1 MSG