We Must Tend To The Vineyard Within.

We must tend to the vineyard that is within.

We spend so much time as guardians of the vineyards of the brethren that, sometimes, we neglect our own vineyard within. Yet the vineyard within is where our roots are deepened. It is where trust, belief, and character in Christ are formed. It is where we are forged and sculpted. It is where we find ourselves in Christ.

The vineyard within is where we learn to be secure even in our failures. It is where we discover what it actually means to boast in our weaknesses, because when we are weak, then we are strong in Christ, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Here, we learn not to be ashamed of our failures, our past, or even our present, because in Christ we are complete. It is where we learn to let go completely in Him.He is the Head of all principality and power, and we are seated with Him.

In the vineyard within, these truths cease to be merely text on paper or theological semantics. They become lived realities. They take root. They become life.

It is here that we begin to understand peace.

Peace is not merely the absence of chaos or conflict. Peace is perfect, unending, complete well-being. Peace is Christ Himself, and in Him we possess every necessary good. Peace is spiritual prosperity in Christ. Peace is knowing that my Lord, my Director, my Friend, my Lover King is my Shepherd, and therefore I want for nothing.

Peace is freedom from fear. Freedom from agitation. Freedom from the tyranny of agitating passions and inner conflict. Peace is Christ becoming so real within me that circumstances outside me no longer determine the condition within me.

We are forged and sculpted in this vineyard within.

And so we must tend it, one-on-one with the Father. Drinking. Eating. Feasting.

“He has prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

He has prepared a feast for me even in the presence of my enemies, because my feast is in Him. I eat of Him. I drink of Him. I feast in Him. And this feasting is not time-bound. In the vineyard within, time begins to lose its relevance. There is simply communion. Abiding. Drinking even as we have already drunk. Eating even as we have already eaten. Receiving from an inexhaustible Christ.

This vineyard becomes our oasis.

It is the place from which I can say, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, because You are with me.”

The valley may still be a valley. The shadow may still fall across the path. The enemies may still be present around the table. Yet something within me has become settled because I have been tending the vineyard within.

No wonder my heart is glad. I rejoice, and my body rests in safety.

This is the peace I find in Him and deepen myself in as I tend my vineyard within. His peace guards my heart even while I walk through valleys. His presence quiets what circumstances attempt to agitate. His sufficiency teaches me that I lack nothing because He is my Shepherd.

And so I return again and again to the vineyard within: to drink, to eat, to feast, to abide, to be forged, to be sculpted, to deepen my roots in Christ.

For before I can faithfully tend the vineyards around me, I must not neglect the vineyard He has entrusted to me within.