True Vine • Devotion 6

God Works in all Situations
Jeremy Smith

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” John 15:10

Jesus has just explained to His disciples how their relationship to Him and God should work. He used the example of a vine producing fruit and explains how the fruit (us) needs to be attached to the vine (Jesus) to continue growth. However, what happens when we do not feel God moving in our life? What happens when it feels like we are not moving forward in our relationship? It is those times when we are struggling and it feels like every tiny baby step forward we make results in a giant leap backward.

Our family hobby for the last few years is raising chickens and ducks. We planned to start with six chickens. Between minimum buys and just how cute a little chick or duckling can be, in the blink of an eye, we had just shy of 50 birds at the end of the first season. We were having a hard time keeping up with storing and selling eggs but had a fairly steady stream of people who loved the fresh eggs and were consistently wanting more. So, at the beginning of the second season, we decided to try adding a few more birds, which quickly turned into more than doubling the total amount we had previously. Season two was terrible. Our egg production was highly erratic, with almost no consistency from week to week. We started getting to a point of being beyond frustrated and almost ready to give up. We had tried increasing their space, changing food, upping the quality of food, changing protein levels, and giving them more sunlight. We were reading more and more about others’ struggles and resolutions to see what to try. It took months to get any type of consistent level of eggs, but we finally found something that was working. It felt like a switch had been turned on and we went from a handful of eggs one day to almost two dozen the next day. Then within a week, we had almost three dozen per day.

Sometimes this is how our walk with God is going to be. Some days it is going to be very clear, that we are headed in the right direction. If you continue reading John 15:11, Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Those are the easy days to share that joy He is speaking of. Other times, we need to look back on those days and the joy they brought us as a reminder.

Something to remember when we may be facing a trial or hardship is that God has not left us. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, it says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” Some days may feel like we are just wasting away, but if we focus on those positive times as difficult as they may be in the moment, it can be a reminder of God’s grace and mercy to us.

Matthew 17:20 says, “He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.’” On those days when the struggle is really holding me down, I reflect back to the idea that all God is requiring of us is to have enough faith, the size of a mustard seed, and nothing would be impossible for us. If you were to look at a mustard seed and really consider that would be all it would take to accomplish unbelievable tasks, the idea is a total mind melt. In the way the world is, how negative the perception could be, and how easily we could fall into a pessimistic perspective, it is an incredible reminder of how amazing and powerful our God truly is. Even when we do not feel it, see it, or understand it, God is still working all things for His glory to be a light in a dark world.