Promise of Rest
By William M. Self
You are a branch on the VINE
God’s Word…
Has the power to make you clean
To remove the growth in your life
That keeps you from being fruitful
Dirt happens, clutter happens, pollution happens.
Since Sandy and I have been married, every day
she walks through the house and straightens up.
There are the cleaning days, but every morning
before leaving the
house and every night before
going to bed she does a walk through.
I know I am part of the reason for the need to clean.
I love to work, but I hate to clean up afterwards.
I am so blessed to have a wife who places a high
priority on keeping
things clean and in order.
Because our house is clean and in order,
we enjoy a peaceful
and restful environment.
God’s Word is a cleaning agent.
In Ephesians 5, the wife is a picture of the church.
The church, you and I, are…
“Washed with water
through the word”
The Word of God is able to wash away
guilt, shame, unhealthy desires.
The Word first reveals them…It exposes the dirt,
even in the places we
think no one will ever look.
The Word of God is like water…It can
get into places nothing else can reach.
The beauty of God’s Word is it
not only finds the dirt, it cleans it…
Making us blameless, innocent, sincere, genuine.
Jesus gave this illustration to His disciples…
“He said I am the vine
and you are the branches”
He prunes the branches, cleans out the over growth.
His Word reveals the things that are growing in our
lives that keep us from being unfruitful and unfulfilled.
The Word of God helps us see what is taking up space in
our lives that keeps us from accomplishing our purpose in
life.
Jesus said to His disciples…
“You are already clean
because of the word I have spoken to you.”
The reason the Apostles were so fruitful…
The reason they turn the world upside down was
because, the words of Jesus had revealed their
purpose and the growth that was in the way.
If you want rest, let the Word of God
Prune what you are doing in life that
keeps you from fruitfulness.
Scripture Reading
Ephesians
5:25-28 NIV
25 Husbands,
love your wives, just
as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up
for her to make her holy, cleansing
her by the
washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as a radiant
church,
without
stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
but holy and blameless.
John 15:1-4 NIV
15:1 "I
am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts
off every branch in me that bears no fruit,
while every
branch that does bear fruit he prunes
so that it
will be even more fruitful.
3 You are
already clean because of
the word I
have spoken to you.
4 Remain in
me, and I will remain in you.
No branch
can bear fruit by itself; it
must remain
in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit
unless you remain in me.
John
17:17-19 NIV
17 Sanctify
them by the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you
sent me into the world,
I have sent
them into the world.
19 For them
I sanctify myself,
that they
too may be truly sanctified.
2 Timothy 2:15
NIV
Do your best
to present yourself to God as one approved,
a workman
who does not need to be ashamed and
who correctly handles the word of truth.
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