Master of my life,
You planted the vineyard of my soul, carefully surrounded it with the wall of Your love and grace, dug a winepress of hope, and built a watchtower of Your presence. You have given me everything. You have entrusted everything to me.
And you expected fruit. You looked for justice and righteousness, but how often You found only selfishness and the bloodshed of my ego, which cried out for its own way.
“The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:7)
Then You sent Your Son. Him, who is the one true Heir of all things. And my heart, so often like those tenants, thought only of its own gain in its blindness and pride.
You are the heir who was rejected
In the depths of my sinfulness, the same thought was born, the same conspiracy against You, Jesus. The desire to kill You and seize the inheritance that does not belong to me.
“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours.’” (Mark 12:7)
And I have done this. With every sin, with every rejection of Your love, I have thrown you out of the vineyard of my heart and crucified You.
“So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” (Luke 20:15)
But Your plan was greater than my wickedness. Thrown out of the vineyard, You died outside the gate to sanctify and cleanse me with Your holy Blood.
“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.” (Hebrews 13:12)
The stone that I, a foolish builder, rejected, You, Father, have made the cornerstone of my life, my hope, and my salvation.
“Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’” (Acts 4:11)
Grafted into Your grace
And now, this morning, I stand before You in silent wonder. You broke off the branches that bore no fruit, and grafted me, a wild olive shoot, in among the others.
“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,” (Romans 11:17)
Lord, thank you for grafting me, a wild and unworthy olive shoot, into Your True Vine. Thank you for allowing me to become a branch on Your vine, sharing in the root and nourishment of Your infinite love.
And so a miracle occurred. The tenants wanted to kill the Heir to seize the inheritance. But You allowed the death of the Heir to make me an heir.
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)
Today, I want to live in this truth. Help me not to be like the wicked tenants who wanted to seize the inheritance, but to live as an heir who bears the fruit of Your Kingdom and strives to be Your gift to others.
Give me a heart that will faithfully yield its harvest to You in season.
Amen.
AMEN!!!!
Amen 🙏