21 Sep Something Greater Than a Completed To-Do List

I looked down at the fuel gauge on our car – the light blinked on in what seemed like a response to my attention: Empty. “How are we on empty again already?,” I thought to myself as I steered our car towards the nearest gas station.

I was a mother on a mission – with places to go and things to do – that’s for sure. But one thing was certain – I wasn’t going to get anywhere with a gas tank that was on empty.

Our spiritual lives are very similar. Just as our phones need charging, our cars need gas, and our bodies need food and rest, our souls need regular communion with the Lord and time set aside to feed on His Word if we are going to grow and thrive spiritually.

Scripture paints a beautiful picture of the man or woman who is thriving spiritually:

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalms 1:1-3).

Fruit-Bearing Lives

In our busyness, we may rush through our days without the spiritual nourishment we need. Is it any surprise then when we are burned out or lacking in perspective and patience?

To his disciples Jesus brought this simple exhortation:

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5).

In our productivity-oriented culture, I need to dwell on these seven words early and often: apart from me you can do nothing. I don’t want to live a life of frenzied activity – I want to live a life that is filled with the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to merely check items off my to-do list – I want to bear fruit for God’s kingdom that will last for eternity. I don’t want to just go through the motions of the day – I want to redeem the time for the glory of God.

But I can’t do this on my own – and neither can you. Andrew Murray shares in his classic devotional book, Abide in Christ, “The Christian often tries to forget his weakness; God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply. The Christian wants to conquer his weakness and to be freed from it; God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it. The Christian thinks his weaknesses are his greatest hindrance in the life and service of God; God tells us that it is the secret of strength and success. It is our weakness, heartily accepted and continually realized, that gives our claim and access to the strength of Him who has said, ‘My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 

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Lord, we confess that while we often rise in the morning with minds swimming in our to-do lists, we can do nothing of eternal worth apart from the work of your Spirit within us. We surrender all our work, rest, and play into your hands; May your strength be perfected in our weakness today as we rest and abide in your love.