By Jude Ayua
Areas to Apply the Lessons from the Lord’s Vineyard
In the earlier parts of the series, we reflected on the song of the Lord’s Vineyard and how to apply them to our lives generally. In this part, we consider them in specific aspects of our lives.
Spirituality
Treat your spiritual life like a vineyard. For your spiritual life to flourish, you must plant the right vines in it, nourish them, and tend your spiritual life carefully, and guard it jealously. To achieve these, you must pray, study the Word, fast, and imbibe other spiritual practices. Mentoring, fellowship with people of your faith, and other spiritual-oriented relationships also help you grow spiritually. Importantly, you should realize that your spirituality is foundational to all other aspects of your life, and must prioritize it.
Relationship
If you view your relationship with people as a vineyard, you will treat it carefully, invest in it, and guard it. You must realize that a relationship which is not growing is dying. Relationships are sustained by mutual trust, accountability, communication, respect, love, honesty, forbearance, forgiveness, and similar values. Conversely, failing to practice these values and allowing vices such as quarreling, anger, insults, would kill relationships. In addition, relationships must be guarded from unbeneficial third-thirty influences, including gossip, wrong counsel, and sellouts from such parties. Friendship is a good example of relationships.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 explains the benefits of friendship, emphasizing why friends should avoid external influences. Friends can only enjoy the benefits in Ecclesiastes 4 if they treat their relationship as a vineyard.
Marriage
Imagine your marriage, among other relationships, as a vineyard. Lavish it with love, treat it tenderly, embrace it with peace, dress it with courtesy, respect, and honor. Be compassionate, forgiving, and accommodating toward your spouse; invest in each other. Be your spouse’s ambassador, protect and fight for his or her interests. Be accountable to each other and be trustworthy. You must treat your marriage as your most precious treasure for it to flourish.
God instituted marriage for a purpose. Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5, Ephesians 5:31. God’s purpose for marriage is for couples to enjoy each other’s companionship, grow together, bear and raise children together, and support each other to fulfill their God-given purposes. For a couple to fulfill God’s purpose for marriage, the partners must practice the virtues and values that would sustain their marriage, while refraining from vices that could ruin it.
Career
Another area you can apply the lessons from the song of the Lord’s Vineyard is your career. First, choose a career you are interested in, prepared for, and ready to pursue. Study and acquire the knowledge and relevant skills you need to succeed in it. Continually seek ways to become better in your career, such as attending workshops, training programs, and more. Focus on it and do not be distracted by what other people may be doing in theirs.
In Amos 7:14-15, the prophet Amos explains how he was a good vinedresser before God called him to become a prophet. It is safe to assume that Amos could have applied the principles from his vinedressing experience to his ministry as a prophet. This suggests that you can also apply lessons about farming to your own career.
In the next part, we will reflect on the second part of the song of the Lord’s Vineyard (Isaiah 5:3-7), which laments how the vineyard was unyielding.
Read the preceding part of the series here.
