May 28, 2026 – Reliance
Viansa Winery in Sonoma, CA
Days – “He humbled Himself” (Phil. ii. 8). Simpson offers perspective on giving up control to God, “One of the hardest things for a lofty and superior nature is to be under authority, to renounce his own will, and to take a place of subjection. But Christ took upon Him the form of a servant, gave up His independence, His right to please Himself, His liberty of choice, and after having from eternal ages known only to command, gave Himself up to obey. I have seen occasionally the man who was once a wealthy employer a clerk in the same store.”
After Don sold his company, he went from owner/boss to an employee in that company and two others since. I have watched him do that with such grace even when the methods and directions of higher ups have sometimes been questionable. He has settled in quite easily to being glad that someone else is in control, guiding and directing the company. It can be that way in our lives as we trust God to guide us. Simpson continues about the clerk, “It was not an easy or graceful position, I assure you. But Jesus was such a perfect servant that His Father said: ‘Behold, My Servant in whom My soul delighteth.’ All His life, His watchword was, ‘The Son of Man came to minister.’ I am among you as He that doth serve.’ ‘I can do nothing of Myself.’ ‘Not My will, but Thine, be done.’ Have you, beloved, learned the servant’s place?”
JC – “Man has tended to make himself the measure of all things. But man’s measure is too tiny to comprehend My majestic vastness. That is why most people do not see Me at all, even though they live and move and have their being in Me. Enjoy the radiant beauty of My Presence. Declare My glorious Being to the world!”
Power – Proverbs 7:2-3 – “Keep my commandments and live, and keep my law and teaching as the apple (the pupil) of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” Joyce explains further, “What we think and speak, especially if it is frequent, is written on the tablets of our hearts. It is embedded in our hard drives, so to speak. Just as a computer can only put out the information that is programmed into it, our hearts can put out only what is written on them…. If you don’t like the results you are getting from your computer and hard drive, you don’t hesitate to get a new program or a new computer, and that is what you should do with your life. Start rewriting what has been programmed into your heart by choosing what you think and speak.”
Prevail #148 – Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Larson helps us see the wisdom of leaning into a close relationship with God as she remembers the answer she once gave to her young, strong-willed son’s question about knowing the difference in God’s voice and the devil’s: “Suppose we took a walk in the woods and at first you held my hand and we explored together, but eventually you let go and ran ahead. How easy would it be for someone else to whisper from the shadows and pretend they’re me? In the same way, stick close enough to know God and His ways and you’ll recognize His voice.”
JA – “I AM THE VINE; you are one of the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears abundant fruit. Apart from Me – cut off from vital union with Me – you can do nothing…. When you cooperate with My indwelling Presence, asking Me to be in control, you can produce abundant fruit.” See John 15:5.
Streams – Genesis 32:26, 29 – “’I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ …Then he blessed him there.” Cowman has J. R. Miller explain these verses, “Jacob won the victory and the blessing here not by wrestling but by clinging…. he would not let go…. We too will not win the victory in prayer until we cease our struggling. We must give up our own will and throw our arms around our Father’s neck in clinging faith…. It is not applying pressure or insisting upon our own will that brings victory. It is won when humility and trust unite in saying, ‘Not my will, but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42). We are strong with God only to the degree that self is conquered and is dead.”
I continue to be amazed at how these separate devotions weave together each day. And, I’m grateful to be blessed and guided by God through them. Utmost continues with the theme of dying to self as Chamber’s writes, “Until the resurrection life of Jesus is manifested in you, you want to ask this and that; then after a while you find all questions gone, you do not seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the place of entire reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus which brings you into perfect contact with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why shouldn’t you? …If anything is a mystery to you and it is coming in between you and God, never look for the explanation in your intellect, look for it in your disposition, it is that which is wrong. When once your disposition is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, the understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will get to the place where there is no distance between the Father and His child because the Lord has made you one, and ‘in that day ye shall ask Me no question.’”
JL – “Treasured Jesus, Help me remember that challenging circumstances come and go, but You are continually with me…. You can see the big picture…. You’re constantly at work in me…. One of my favorite ways to draw near You is to lovingly speak Your Name…. When I wait quietly with You, I can hear You whisper: ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ In Your refreshing Name, Amen.”
