This morning I was reminded of a theme that has come up 3 times in the last week or so, the parable of the seed and sower (See Matt 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8 for the different versions of the parable). I have been reflecting on my life and the present season, and had been comparing my present life to years previous, and seeing a bit less fruit in my life these days.
As I woke up the following thought went through my head, “You need to have grace for different seasons in your life. There are seasons of planting, seasons of harvesting and not all seed produces fruit at the same time, or in the same way. You will not always bear the same type and amount of fruit, so give yourself grace.”
Those types of thoughts, while they are thoughts in my head, seem to originate outside of me. In my many years of following the Lord, I believe He often speaks exactly this way, placing thoughts in my mind, especially at times that I am not distracted. He doesn’t just do this in the early morning, but will speak to me this way throughout the day as I turn my attention to Him and listen.
I believe the Lord wants a relationship with me, and for us to have a relationship we must be able to communicate. Most of the time the Lord speaks to me through His scriptures, but quite often it will be through a still quiet voice speaking thoughts into my mind.
Enough of that - back to the theme of seeds, soil and fruitfulness. I have reflected and written many times of these themes, and it is always good to revisit my previous writings. This morning, the overall theme seemed related to seasons of less fruit, and helping me to be ok with that in my life.
Any farmer or gardener will tell you that every seed takes time to grow into a plant, and takes time to produce its fruit. Some produce fruit quickly, some take a whole season. Some, like fruit trees, take multiple years to reach full fruitfulness. There is always a period of time between planting and harvesting, and that time is a season of growth, without fruit, or maybe immature fruit, like the tiny green grapes on the grape vine in my back yard. I can see them, but they are not harvestable.
Sometimes we can look at our life, and compare our life to others, and see them bearing fruit, and think we are somehow not doing our part, or that we should be bearing more fruit. We can try to force ourselves to bear more fruit, we can work, and serve and read and everything else, and end up feeling frustrated and even discouraged. We can try to harvest fruit before it is ripe and that usually results in sour fruit, or minimal nourishment.
In my own life, I have been working more hours than almost ever in my life, and my time and energy seem less than other seasons. I have been reflecting on earlier periods where I was engaged in many things, and thinking I need to do more (which is always possible) and wondering about whether I am doing enough in the arena of my faith and my representation of the Lord. I am so busy most days, I am able to pray in the morning, but then the rest of the day is work related, sometimes 12-14 hours.
This morning the message seems to be, “that’s ok, I know the season you are in and I don’t expect you to be bearing much fruit! You are doing what I asked You to do, in a job that I provided, and with a passion and effort that I would expect.”
I need to give myself grace, not compare myself to others, not keep score in my head of my fruitfulness! I need to trust the Lord, His process and His plans! I need to give myself grace to do the best I can and know that He sees and understands!
One thing I know, the Lord is not a task-master. He is relational, not task oriented. He doesn’t keep score, He doesn’t compare us to others. He treats each of us uniquely and individually! He is perfect in His perspective of our life, better than us for sure!
This morning, I am encouraged that the Lord sees us and understands us perfectly. He knows His plans (we might have a faint glimmer of an idea of His plans) and He knows what type of seeds He is planting our lives and how long those seeds take to mature and bear fruit. He invites us to be good soil, to welcome what He is doing, and provide the life environment needed to produce good fruit, and that means regular water, sun, fertilizer, etc. For me that means regular times of prayer, reflection, reading other Christian authors, talking with Christian friends, and regular repentance (recognizing where I need to change the way I think and act to be more like Him).
In the same way that He sees me, He sees everyone! His message is always grace! Grace is the gift of life from Him! It is also coupled with compassion! He knows us, knows our struggles, our thoughts, our weaknesses, and abilities and His perspective gives Him a perfect view of our life and His expectations are always perfectly in line with His perspective.
We need to ask the Lord for this same perspective for our lives, as well as for other's lives. He doesn’t compare, neither should we. He doesn’t have favorites (we are all His favorite). He doesn’t expect us to produce the same abundance of fruit every day of our life, He understands seasons, planting, growing, soil and harvesting.
I reshared something earlier this week that I wrote 10 years ago. The basic theme was that God doesn’t have a negative thought about us! Oh that we would see and believe that!
In closing a few verses from Paul that are worth reflecting on - with the encouragement of this morning - Romans 8:28-29,31-34 NIV:
[28] “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [29] For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
[31] “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? [33] Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. [34] Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Amen and Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment