Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
—Psalm 57:1-2

After my treatment ended several years ago and my life changed dramatically, I thought I knew what God wanted me to do. I felt His anointing on me for ministry, and specifically for a certain area of ministry. At first, everything fell into place. I felt forward momentum, a strong confirmation of my calling, and a taste of walking in my destiny. Then, everything seemed to come to a halt. Every move I made toward my calling, I came against a brick wall. There were “border bullies” at every turn. I began to feel like King David with my one “Goliath moment” and then relegated to the caves for 13 years. In some areas of my ministry calling, I’m still hiding in the caves.

David was anointed King of Israel but he had to wait for years to realize God’s promise. The calling itself was unmistakable. When God sent the Prophet Samuel to Jesse’s house to anoint his son king, the Lord rejected the first seven sons Jesse presented. Finally, Samuel ordered the youngest son, David, to come in from the field where he was tending the sheep. Samuel knew immediately this was God’s chosen one. He poured olive oil on his head and anointed him king on the spot and the “Lord came upon him from that day on” (1 Samuel 16:13).

Soon after, David had his moment of glory.  When the Philistine and Israelite armies faced each other for battle, Goliath, the Philistine giant, challenged the Israelites to settle their dispute with a single combat. David, armed only with his shepherd’s staff, his sling, and five smooth stones, faced Goliath’s taunting threats: “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” (1 Samuel 17:45-47). And the Lord did. With a single stone from his sling, David toppled the giant and then killed him with his own sword.

After his triumph over Goliath, David must have had no doubt his anointing was for real. Then everything came to a halt. Saul, the current king of Israel, had deliberately disobeyed and lost favor with God. When Saul realized David would become the next king, he became jealous and obsessed with killing David. David spent the next 13 years running for his life. He wrote many of the Psalms during this time of hiding in caves and waiting for God to act. When we read his raw emotions as he cries out to God for mercy, there is no doubt he wondered whether God’s calling on his life would ever come to pass (Psalm 142).  Yet he always ends each Psalm praising God and trusting Him to fulfill His promises.

Perhaps like David, you find yourself hiding in the caves, waiting for God to make good on His promises.  He may be using this time to refine, teach, and prepare you as He prepared David for his future responsibilities as king. Saul, his predecessor, had great promise but failed due to character issues. Perhaps he wasn’t ready to be king. God was getting David ready. David had many opportunities to kill Saul and speed up God’s timetable, but he resisted. Don’t be impatient and strive to make things happen. God may be using your time in the cave to build your character and get you ready. When you are tempted to doubt your calling, stand on your Goliath moment and trust God to fulfill His purpose for your life.

Excerpted from Peace For Each Hour by Mary J. Nelson; Copyright © 2013; ISBN 978-1938388170; Published by Comfort Publishers; Unauthorized duplication prohibited.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
–1 Corinthians 2:9

On October 22, 2012, my mother-in-law, Charlotte E. Nelson, drew her last breath on earth and took her first breath in the Lord’s blissful presence. There are no human words to describe that moment when Heaven touched Earth and took her home. The angels were there and she was greeted by her husband, parents, family and friends at Heaven’s gate. The radiant smile and the serene, peaceful countenance on her face was proof of that first moment she saw what no eye had seen, heard what no ear had heard, and blissfully received what no mind had imagined.

Charlotte was an amazing woman who cared for her family, worked hard, and impacted the lives of many people during her 94 years on this side of Heaven. She taught this city girl many things, like the secret to tender meat and dark gravy (dark brown speckled roaster) and to never throw away the turkey carcass (make soup with the leftovers!). She knit, sewed, gardened, canned, and made the best apple crisp I’ve ever tasted from the apples on the tree in her own front yard. It wasn’t all hard work on the farm where she and my father-in-law raised their family of four children. There are many stories about the exciting trips she took with my father-in-law in their private airplane, and in later years, their fifth wheel trailer.  She loved to golf with her grandchildren on the little course across the road from the farmstead and passed on to them both her passion for the game and her natural ability to shoot the ball straight.

In her later years, our greatest joy was praying with Charlotte and reading the Bible together. She loved Jesus and knew exactly where she was going when her full life on this earth was over. She knew she was going to a place where her every desire would be satisfied more abundantly than she could ever dream. We know we will see her again because Jesus defeated death (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die (John 11:25-26). God created each one of us with a deep longing in our heart to live in relationship with Him, and He never stops pursuing us.  His free gift of love comes with no strings attached. There is nothing we can do to earn it, and there is nothing we have done that is beyond His Son’s outstretched arms of forgiveness. Charlotte knew Heaven is her home and Jesus is the way. Accepting His love offering is the most important decision we will ever make.

We are also reminded of the tremendous responsibility we have to pass on this same assurance to the next generation. Moses gave instructions for passing on our faith heritage when he told the Israelites to repeat God’s commands “again and again to your children “and to “talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). Paul saw in Timothy a deep faith inspired by his godly heritage passed down by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice that would enable him to live boldly to fulfill his calling in Christ (Acts 16:1-3).

Our children will follow in our footsteps. They will do what they see us do, and they will become who we are. God is trusting us to love, nurture, train, teach and prepare our children and grandchildren to walk in the abundant life He has promised in this life and the life to come (John 10:10). The weight of this responsibility can feel heavy at times, but we can always trust in God´s strength, wisdom, and grace and stand on the promise that “a child trained up to choose the right path will remain on it” (Proverbs 22:6).

Charlotte is home now. We love her and we’ll miss her.  But we take great joy in knowing that those in Christ never say goodbye for the last time. Her legacy will last from generation to generation. She will live through our memories, our laughter, our golf swings, our craft projects, our turkey dinners, and our faith stories. And we look forward to that day when she will greet us at Heaven’s gate!

 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.
—John 15: 5,8

We are blessed with wonderful friends who always challenge us to do new things. In our latest adventure, we joined the grape harvest crew at a local winery. As our car meandered up the hill through the vineyard, I was struck by the beauty of the setting. Our destination was an old restored barn without walls resting on the top of a hill. It was surrounded by pristine rows of perfectly groomed grapevines producing fruit of many varieties especially bred for the northern climate. As we rested on Adirondack chairs overlooking the valley below, the owner gave us a brief overview along with our harvesting instructions. Then he sent us out into the vineyard, armed with special cutters and “lugs” to carry our harvest. We spread out with an arm’s length between us along the first row of vines to hand pick the ripe grape clusters, while harvesting but leaving behind the unripe and spoiled fruit. When we finished harvesting the fruit in our section, we picked up our lugs and hop-scotched to the end of the line. This pattern continued for the next two hours until our crew of thirty harvested all the rows of this particular variety.

As I worked each section, I thought about some of the many Biblical references to the fruit of the vine. For example, we know one of the first things Noah did after the flood was to plant a vineyard (Genesis 9:20), and the scouts sent out by Moses to the Promised Land returned with huge clusters of grapes (Numbers 13:33). The Bible gives instructions for growing grapes (Proverbs 24:30-31), tithing with wine (Leviticus 23:13, Deuteronomy 14:22-27) using wine in Jewish feasts (Deuteronomy 16:13-15) and as a drink offering with the daily sacrifice (Exodus 29:40-41). The Prophet Isaiah used the vineyard to symbolize Israel’s fruitfulness in doing God’s work on earth (Isaiah 5:1-7). Jesus turned water into wine as His first miracle (John 2:1-11) and He used wine at the last supper as a sign of the new covenant of His blood, shed for the forgiveness of sin.

While filling my lug, I could see that the grapevine is a prolific plant and a single vine bears many grapes.  It reminded me of John 15:1-17 where Jesus used the grapevine to teach that He is the vine, we are the branches, and His Father is the gardener who cares for us to make us fruitful.  The “gardener” or owner of our vineyard explained how he cuts off the branches that don’t bear fruit and prunes the fruit-bearing branches to make them more fruitful. Likewise, when we are unproductive and bear no fruit for God or block the efforts of others who are bearing fruit for the Kingdom, we can be cut off from our life source. Like the useless withering branches in the vineyard compost pile, we can bear no lasting fruit apart from the vine.  To stay connected to the vine and produce much fruit, we must remain faithful to Jesus, do what He says by His power, and be led by the Holy Spirit. The fruit we harvest is joy (John 15:11), love (John 15:12), answered prayer (John 15:16) in addition to peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23). Even as we bear fruit, God can use the difficult times in our lives to “prune” us so our character and faith our strengthened and we can bear even more.

When finished with the harvest, we enjoyed a meal together, sampled some wines, and then followed our grapes back to the winery where the winemaker showed us how the grapes would be de-stemmed and crushed and the juice would be fermented, aged, and blended.  And no, although it would have been fun, we didn’t stomp them with our feet!

We’ll go back next year to be a part of this ancient practice that dates back to Bible times. The next time you pass a vineyard or sample its fruit, I encourage you to remember that He is the vine, and you are the branches. Bring Him glory and do whatever it takes to stay vital, healthy, and fruitful. May your harvest be great and may your lug overflow!