fine wine

Have you ever come to the realization that the way God sees your life is the opposite of how you see your life? Today the Lord was using the analogy of wine to describe a life that is ready to be served to others. We become like fine wine in the Lord’s hands, and it is His pleasure to serve us to others. If we turn back the hands of time, we see that a person’s life originally bore fruit. Then pressure was applied through life’s trials, and the juice from the fruit flowed out. As this juice was aged through the trial of time, it became wine. The wine Master tasted this wine from time to time to test whether or not it was ready to serve. During the trial of waiting the fineness of the wine was discerned. Waiting longer would only bring out the goodness of the flavor and not spoil it. Therefore, it is not the wine served early that is the finest, but those aged longer.

In our lives we often bear good fruit, only to suffer through severe trials and oppression. Paul writes that we are “troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (2 Cor 4:8-11) As a Christian, life tempers us until we become fine wine. The oppression, and eventual waiting may seem cruel and useless to us, however the Master wine maker is tasting us from time to time to see when our fineness has been reached. If we see others being used in service to God we should rejoice, for their fineness has been accomplished. However, if we begin to think that we are not ready because of inherent badness in us, we will become discouraged. We do not wait because of a flaw in our design, or some foul flavor seeping out from our lives; we wait because there is a greater fineness the Lord wants to bring forth, to serve to the world.

Today I would like to encourage you to wait without despair. God is storing up the essence of all you are and none of your fineness will be lost. In the waiting, you are treasured by God, and He anticipates with joy the day He will serve you to others. God will bring forth the surpassing fineness of all He created you to be and with great pride serve you to the world. What could be better?