NOT IN ME

By Rick Mathes

John 15:1 (NASB77) ¹  ” I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Once you are born again you aren’t the person you once were. In fact, you are not even sovereign over you, our Lord is. Essentially you exchange all you are for all He is. He lives through you with His attributes not yours so you no longer are jealous of anyone for anything. All glory is His.

All that you planned for you or ever wanted to be is out the window. Your ambitions are His. The issue of your day is what does He want in my life not what you want. Your life is an exchanged life: yours for His.

No more selfish ambitions but a total selflessness comes over you. You have died to self so that you may live in Him. He has become your all in all. You’re everything.

Satan fell because of his pride of himself. We rise because of our pride in Jesus. In fact, we are so proud of Him we really don’t take notice of our own accomplishments because they were all for Him and accomplished through Him only.

We as elect only see that which diminishes self and raises Him. We become lesser that He might become greater. He looms above all. We forsake our level of incompetency and we reach for His level of Excellency. He is always beyond our reach but reach we must!

Even the slightest hint from Him becomes a command and a demand from the God of our universe: hardly one to arm wrestle with. He is going to do what He wants, what He wants to do, when He wants to, if He feels like it! He has no one to answer to, He is at the top of the pecking order, in fact, He is all by Himself God and there isn’t a “plan B” or number two. Oh, how much different He is than we are!

God is love and there isn’t any legitimate love but His. No matter how well we mask it our love is self-gratifying: what’s in it for me? There is not real strength in any selfishness because it’s nothing more than sand slipping through your fingers. It is an un-repairable weakness to think or even imagine we have any strength apart from Him. It result in fruitlessness when all we do is parade around and sing “I did it my way!”