[Real Life] The True VineSample

Peasant or God?

Is God the Gardener who can tend to your soul, or is He one that needs your approval? Is God one who you hire to be your yardman, or is He one you give your field to own it? These are vastly different roles. If you hire Jesus to be your yardman and do some things for you, through His grace He will show you some things. 

However, when you give Jesus your land, you might say, “Lord, I don't like tomatoes, please don’t plant tomatoes." And when He plants tomatoes, you realize, “I love tomatoes!” When He says, “I want to make this a pecan orchard,” you say, “I’m not really into pecans... but I am going to trust Him.” In doing this we say, “Lord you are the true Vine!” 

The greatest blessings in my life were those things that I was afraid to give up. I was so afraid as a teenager to give my life to Jesus because I did not want to lose my friendships. Now I have so many friends that I cannot remember everybody’s name. 

God had to peel my hands off of my dream of being a businessman, which is a great calling. God said, “No, vocational ministry is what you are going to do.” What a blessing it has been! Now I am able to say, “Lord, my life is Your field. You are not my worker, You are not my yardman, You are not a peasant. I am Your bond slave, I am Your indentured servant, I am Your son.” 

This is easy to say on Sunday at church, but not so easy to say on Monday morning when the Gardener cuts off the branches that bear no fruit, and prunes the branches which do bear fruit. The Gardener does this with two kinds of storms in our lives: correcting storms and perfecting storms. 

The correcting storms take the vineyard vines out of the ground and train them to run along the trellis so that they can get the right amount of sun. The perfecting storm is for the vines which are bearing fruit, but the Gardener wants to produce more fruit in them. 

Whichever type of vine you are, storms are coming and that is why it is important to abide in the Vine.