For our devotion today, Molly Holloway would like to share this song that we’re going to be singing at the service on Sunday morning, “New Wine”.  The beginning of the song says:

In the crushing in the pressing

You are making new wine

In the soil I now surrender

You are breaking new ground

So I yield to You and to Your careful hand

When I trust You I don’t need to understand

From the perspective of the grape, the pressing is devastating.  From the perspective of the soil, being broken up is not pleasant.  From the perspective of the vine (John 15:1-2), pruning is painful.  But from the perspective of the Master Gardener, all these things are not only necessary, but good in that they result in something wonderful – new wine, fertile fields, and fruitful vines.

How willing are we to trust the Master Gardener with the end result when we are in the middle of the pressing?  How willing are we to yield to Him in advance and say, as John Wesley did, “ I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things  to your pleasure and disposal.” (Covenant Prayer, modern translation)? It can be scary to say in advance, “Do whatever you want with me, God.”  How willing are we?