source

Constantly toiling to do good works is draining. We strive to produce good fruit, missing the point. God is the Source, the One who produces the fruit. We are only to remain in Him.

God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:13, NASB

Sanctification means to be purified. Purification isn’t a one-time act; it is a continuous work of the Spirit. But that isn’t meant to be a frightening thing for believers. I have found much of my toil to be self-inflicted. I get an idea of what God requires of me as a Christian so I charge full speed ahead like, “I gotch-u, God!” Inevitably, the outcome of my valiant service doesn’t look at all like what I thought it would. Discouragement and frustration flank me and I start dissecting where I went wrong.

Purification isn’t a one-time act; it is a continuous work of the Spirit. Click To Tweet

The Source

One of the ladies in my bible study shared an enlightening interpretation of John 15 this past week. She said when Jesus described Himself as the vine and us the branches, we often misunderstand the call He is making. As branches, we strive toward producing fruit. Yet we cannot manufacture any of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) apart from being an extension of the vine. Therefore, our chief goal is not to produce fruit for the Lord, but to stay joined to Him. God will do the work of producing fruit through us as we seek to gain life from Him.

Our chief goal is not to produce fruit for the Lord, but to stay joined to Him. God will do the work of producing fruit through us as we seek to gain life from Him. Click To Tweet

The dilemma I keep running into is I forget my role as the branch. I want to be able to see how God is working and why. That way, I can help speed things along, you know? God usually moves at a snail’s pace. The Bible reveals that nothing happens without God’s knowledge or permission. But there are days when that isn’t comforting to me, because I want to know why.

The Mystery

A few weeks ago, when I was wrestling with this truth, one of my pastors brought some peace to my grappling. “Be more okay with mystery,” he said. In this information age we want to know and be in control of everything within our grasp. If there’s something we don’t understand or cannot explain — we reject it. Yet there is no way for anyone to know how some suffering or tragedy will be used to sanctify or bless someone else 50 or 100 years down the road. What Satan means for evil, God always uses for good.

There is no way for anyone to know how some suffering or tragedy will be used to sanctify or bless someone else 50 or 100 years down the road. What Satan means for evil, God always uses for good. Click To Tweet

Our enemy whispers to us that we need to understand more in order to gain a better grasp. If we can hold on to something, we can control it. It’s the devil’s way to use such a good thing for his purpose of separating us from God. It’s so difficult to just believe a truth without being able to maintain some sort of personal responsibility for it. It’s actually kind of funny. We often don’t want to be responsible for anything concrete and real. But we will kill and destroy for an idea that requires no responsibility at all.

The Fruit

Jesus is the vine; I am the branch. I do not always fully understand His methods or purposes for pruning in my life. Perhaps so I will know He is my refuge. He has never forsaken me.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.”

Psalm 16:2, ESV

My little branch is being sanctified, and I am confident my source of life is solely in the Vine. As I have stepped back from taking charge, God has been producing fruit through my faithfulness to Him. Instead of trying to peddle the value of kid’s ministry, I went to the Source and He is providing! I also have a desire to shepherd younger women, but I don’t have much formal training beyond life itself. But through studying God’s word and listening to my loving Master, He is bringing people into my life I didn’t even know. It is humbling, at times agonizing, and completely joyous. I LOVE watching God work.

Aaron Burden

Watercolor by Katie Braswell

Instead of us looking inward to find our identity in Christ, we need to look to who He is. Only by knowing who He is, do we know who we are.

My adolescence was spent mostly outdoors. Unless I had schoolwork or lightning was splitting the sky, I was breathing fresh air. Most of my childhood memories revolve around being in nature. Often, I reflect on experiences like when a friend, my brother, and I unrolled toilet paper back-and-forth across the street and through several yards. In the rain. That was fun.

As a child, I exhibited awe and wonder; I trusted with abandon. There was nothing to distract me from marveling at God’s creation. Unfortunately, maturity walks hand-in-hand with the loss of innocence and awe takes a back seat.

In the movie Alice in Wonderland, there is a scene with the Mad Hatter and Alice that I love:

“You’re not the same as you were before. You were much more muchier; you’ve lost your muchness.” – Mad Hatter

“My muchness?” – Alice

“In there [he points to her heart], something is missing.” – Mad Hatter

Identity: What It Is

The dictionary defines muchness as: greatness, as in quantity, measure, or degree. But we all lose our muchness sooner or later. We work on ourselves to restore what is missing when we slow down long enough to realize it. Frantically, we read about how much God loves us and who He says we are, trying desperately to regain our identity as a child of the King. But we are missing something. Does anyone else feel it?

A vital step is being skipped in our effort to reclaim our identity in Christ. Knowing how precious we are in God’s sight doesn’t hold much weight nor do we even possess the ability to believe it fully without intimately knowing His character. Otherwise we are like the man James references who looks at himself in the mirror and then once he walks away immediately forgets what he looked like (James 1:23-24).

Identity: Where It Comes From

How do we recover or incite the wonderment of God?

Psalm 111:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Being a confident woman is not achievable by hours of introspection and assuring myself that I am precious in God’s sight. The words are true; so why do I continue to doubt their validity by being anxious, trying to take control and micromanaging the crap out of everything around me?

Proverbs 14:26 says that strong confidence is found in the fear of the Lord; that is where we begin to lay hold of our “muchness.” Once we have a grip on how all-powerful our Mighty God is, we can equip ourselves to believe the adoration He lavishes on us.

Awe helps us worry less about self-worth by turning our eyes first toward God, then toward others. It also helps establish our self-worth in the best possible way: we understand both our insignificance within creation and our significance to our Creator. – Jen Wilkin

We are precious in God’s sight. He does adore us. His perfect Son was slaughtered so that we could have access to call the One who controls the universe Father. May we remember that He holds the stars in place. He tells the sun to rise and set.

Take a walk in His creation and stand in awe of Him.