Weekly Devotional #006

Your Expertise Is Still Under His Sovereignty

As Christians, while we wouldn’t dare say it out loud, we tend to attempt to trust/follow God for the hard stuff of life, yet we ask Him to tag along in our areas of expertise. In other words, we say in our hearts, “God, this is hard – I need you”, or “God, it’s easy – I got this!” Both of these statements cheapen the richness of our relationship with the Father; they make our relationship transactional not relational.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:4-5

Abide is such a Christianese word, right? What the heck does it mean?! In Strong’s Concordance, the word ‘Abide’ is the Greek word ‘MENO’, which simply means to stay, either in a certain place, mindset or state of expectancy, or relationship. [Word 3306 in the Greek Concordance Section]

The last portion of verse five should humble us. Jesus is saying, “Don’t get it twisted – even your expertise is under my sovereignty!” These two verses are both encouraging and humbling. Encouraging in the sense of the invitation presented – ABIDE IN ME. Humbling in the sense that our self-insufficiency is exposed – APART FROM ME…

Family, there are provisions being made for us under God’s sovereignty that we have NO clue about; we’ll never truly understand the depths of how intimately involved the Lord is in our lives. For this reason, I encourage you to humbly submit your expertise to His will. Yes, we’ve been trained. Yes, we are skilled in certain areas. However, let us never forget we serve a God who governs ALL areas of expertise. Abide in Him – in your areas of strength. In your areas of weakness. He has grace for both. Amen? Amen!

God bless,
Sheim
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