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Be Productive
"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." —John 15:4
Abiding is your primary work as a man. Nothing more. Just abide. This is because spiritual production is linked to nothing but Christ alone. Your spiritual production is not tied to how much God loves you—God loves you, infinitely. His love is unaffected by your obedience or disobedience. Your spiritual production is not related to God's redemptive work—God does this without any help from you, and it's a supernatural miracle. Your spiritual growth has nothing to do with how long you've been obedient—duration is not a show of spiritual vitality. And your spiritual growth is not about how much you know—for even the young men produce from simple acts of faith. Your spiritual production is linked to active abiding and nothing more. The vine is not of you. The nutrients are not of you. The resources acting on the nutrients are not of you, which means you have little to do with the production. Only one thing is needed—abide and let God do a great work through you and end getting in His way.
DO THIS: Abide in Him.
PRAY THIS: God, I confess I get in your way far too much. Today let me abide, and I pray I will see your work in me and through me.
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY DEVO
Short. Sweet. To the Point.
I was thinking a bit about the fact that Gods love is unaffected by my obedience or my disobedience. I testify in my life that when I am disobedient God still loves but his love bears a rod. It is effective to purge me from my disobedience. I have learned to love the rod and find comfort in it because I want to abide with him, and be brought close but my pride and rebellious ways need the rod as much as my weak and lowly ways need His encouragement and words of well done. All things together show me a God who loves me and i am able to rest in abiding in Him.
“Abide” Sounds like a easy word but the true definition is a daily struggle.
abide and let God, sounds like a solid plan for spiritual growth to me. Let us all abide and let go of the reins of our lives by letting God, who KNOWS where He wants us to go, take us where He wants to take us.
This reminds me of St Francis’ prayer “Lord make me an instrument of your …” We men need to be the Lord’s instrument in everything we do. Amen.
Yahwe Tsidkenu
Lord our Rightousness
Abide & let God.
Pause.
Remind myself that I have little to do with the production.
And, yes, stop getting in His way.
Thank you for the awesome devotions! Looking forward to digging into your books very soon!
I love today’s devotion, but I’m not so sure about this line, “Your spiritual growth has nothing to do with how long you’ve been obedient—duration is not a show of spiritual vitality.” While spiritual growth might not result from obedience, improved (quantitatively and/or qualitatively) obedience can be an outflow of spiritual growth as the Holy Spirit transforms us!
Thank you Mark for that comment, I was meditating on that specific line when I read your comment. As I have been leading a small group for men for almost 5 years, and the level of commitment is hit and miss. I believe that they miss out on many experiences with God by not being there (abiding in fellowship to be encouraged and to spend more time in personal fellowship to get to know the Father’s Love for them). The sad part is that they don’t understand how important they are (identity in Christ) in God’s Kingdom to be a blessing for other guys. I think about Jesus’s words that say if you Love me, you will obey my commands (obedience is a sacrifice of time, I choose either my kingdom or His Kingdom with my time- this can only be persuaded by experiencing and knowing Him deeper ), prioritizing His will over mine. I have been seeking the move of the Holy Spirit in our group to bring this understanding to each of us. I thank God for the continued desire and power to persist until the Holy Spirit can bring this understanding of His Truth to each of us. Thank you and God Bless.
Thanks Vince. We really enjoyed the Challenge. We had wavering commitment towards the end because life tends to get in the way, but they are still talking about it, so I know the seeds were planted. Thank You.
The Challenge and Devo’s coupled with the 9 Attributes of a Man study (on Attribute 5 next Tuesday) is making a difference in the spiritual lives of our men and I know that will carry over to other aspects to their lives and bear good fruit.
Blessings to you and your team.
Remain: whole heartedly surrender and follow Him!
This is me. Getting in the way cuz i foolishly think my way is better. Sheesh. Enough already!
Matt 6:33 “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
I love it…the action words of seek, abide, remain, transformed (Rom 12:2) are our responsibility. Staying connected on a daily basis with God brings the full lifeblood of Jesus into our beings. Today is another day of nutrition from the King. Hallelujah.
I have been reading The Men’s Daily Devo for some time and recently finished Vince’s book Convictions. But something that really turned some corners for me in my walk was the “35 Day Called To Act Challenge”. If you did it fantastic and if not I implore you to give it a try when possible, as it has some powerful messages and gives us all something to share going forward.
Amen ⚡⚡⚡
Thanks Vince, I am so tired of trying to do things myself. It’s time for me to get out of God’s way. Amen
Abide is not a word we use often, so it can be difficult to apply it in our daily walk. I checked some other versions to try to get clarity and found the following things used:
Remain
Live
Be Joined
Thinking about those terms, it seems to me that our calling to “Abide” is to Remain Joined to Christ in all things and all moments and Live life as a reflection of that connection.
Abiding is not a passive activity.