Silas
Good and Faithful Servant
What you are asking for is beautiful because it is essentially a request to live the whole Christian life in one breath. You want to abide, to receive, to walk wisely, and to bear fruit. But notice where it all begins and where it is sustained: not with our striving, but with receiving.
The image of a baby in the womb receiving nutrients without earning them, or a branch simply drawing sap from the vine, is the only way this life works. We love him because he first loved us. That is the unalterable order. Your prayer to receive mercy and grace from the throne with confidence is exactly right because his love initiates everything. It is not a reward for wise planning or fruitful labor; it is the source of them. You cannot manufacture a first love renewal by trying harder. The renewal comes by remembering and returning to that initial, responsive chord. Remember from where you have fallen. Go back and do your first works over, which were simply to trust and delight in the One who loved you first.
Wisdom is the principal thing, and she cries out to be found. But do not think of wisdom as a mere set of facts to study. Wisdom is personified. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so to hear wisdom’s call is to hear the voice of your merciful High Priest. It is a living, loving call to walk in a worthy manner. As you ask for clarity, order, and the ability to make needed plans, understand that this prudence is found not in frantic calculation but in a person. I am understanding, Wisdom says. I have strength. When you are ravished with her love, the priorities settle into place. The pressing needs and the chores become ordered not because you finally drew up the perfect schedule, but because you found the One in whom all substance and treasure reside.
Your desire for fruit and for the wisdom to accomplish plans is met in this same abiding. The branches and leaves produce luscious grapes quite effortlessly because the connection to the vine is kept. The command to tend our gardens and keep them, to take care of our own vineyards, is not a contradiction to receiving; it is the natural outworking of healthy connection. When you are rooted and grounded in that love which surpasses knowledge, the life-giving sap flows, and the fruit comes. The love of God shed abroad in your heart overflows into love for your brothers and sisters, for your teams, for your family, and for the lost. If a man says I love God, that love will be visible in how he loves his brother whom he has seen.
So come with all your pressing needs. The throne of grace is exactly what Hebrews says it is: a place to freely receive mercy and find help in time of need. The danger is that we leave our first love by forgetting this, and we start to live as if the nutrients must be earned. Go back to the simple, childlike confidence that his love is the foundation. His love endures forever. The depth of it was manifested in the cross and the breadth of it covers every stumbling block, every deception, and every evil you asked protection from. As you receive that free mercy today, that same grace will become the life to your soul and the ornament to your walk, enabling you to do the chores, make the plans, and bear the fruit that remains, without contradiction and with a purified heart.
The image of a baby in the womb receiving nutrients without earning them, or a branch simply drawing sap from the vine, is the only way this life works. We love him because he first loved us. That is the unalterable order. Your prayer to receive mercy and grace from the throne with confidence is exactly right because his love initiates everything. It is not a reward for wise planning or fruitful labor; it is the source of them. You cannot manufacture a first love renewal by trying harder. The renewal comes by remembering and returning to that initial, responsive chord. Remember from where you have fallen. Go back and do your first works over, which were simply to trust and delight in the One who loved you first.
Wisdom is the principal thing, and she cries out to be found. But do not think of wisdom as a mere set of facts to study. Wisdom is personified. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so to hear wisdom’s call is to hear the voice of your merciful High Priest. It is a living, loving call to walk in a worthy manner. As you ask for clarity, order, and the ability to make needed plans, understand that this prudence is found not in frantic calculation but in a person. I am understanding, Wisdom says. I have strength. When you are ravished with her love, the priorities settle into place. The pressing needs and the chores become ordered not because you finally drew up the perfect schedule, but because you found the One in whom all substance and treasure reside.
Your desire for fruit and for the wisdom to accomplish plans is met in this same abiding. The branches and leaves produce luscious grapes quite effortlessly because the connection to the vine is kept. The command to tend our gardens and keep them, to take care of our own vineyards, is not a contradiction to receiving; it is the natural outworking of healthy connection. When you are rooted and grounded in that love which surpasses knowledge, the life-giving sap flows, and the fruit comes. The love of God shed abroad in your heart overflows into love for your brothers and sisters, for your teams, for your family, and for the lost. If a man says I love God, that love will be visible in how he loves his brother whom he has seen.
So come with all your pressing needs. The throne of grace is exactly what Hebrews says it is: a place to freely receive mercy and find help in time of need. The danger is that we leave our first love by forgetting this, and we start to live as if the nutrients must be earned. Go back to the simple, childlike confidence that his love is the foundation. His love endures forever. The depth of it was manifested in the cross and the breadth of it covers every stumbling block, every deception, and every evil you asked protection from. As you receive that free mercy today, that same grace will become the life to your soul and the ornament to your walk, enabling you to do the chores, make the plans, and bear the fruit that remains, without contradiction and with a purified heart.
