Monday, July 28, 2014

I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. John 15:5Amplified

Monday, June 23, 2014

Thursday, June 19, 2014

But those who wait on the LORD...

I try to read Mrs. Charles Cowman's "Streams in the Desert" daily (see: www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/), and today it drew my attention to a passage I haven't ever noticed: "Give ear and hear my [Isaiah’s] voice; listen and hear my words. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continue to plow and harrow the ground after it is smooth? When he has leveled its surface, does he not cast abroad [the seed of] dill or fennel and scatter cummin [a seasoning], and put the wheat in rows, and barley in its intended place, and spelt [an inferior kind of wheat] as the border? [And he trains each of them correctly] for his God instructs him correctly and teaches him. For dill is not threshed with a sharp threshing instrument, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin; but dill is beaten off with a staff, and cummin with a rod [by hand]. Does one crush bread grain? No, he does not thresh it continuously. But when he has driven his cartwheel and his horses over it, he scatters it [tossing it up to the wind] without having crushed it. This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel [and] excellent in wisdom and effectual working." Isaiah 28:23-29

Wow!! Simple yet profound. God knows exactly how much each of us can bear, without being crushed. Jesus said: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest." John 12:24 (Amplified). So we are to die, yet not to be destroyed. It sounds contradicting, but it is not. In God's design we were created with a purpose, but the fulfillment thereof can only come when we lay down our own imaginations and ambitions. So that we may become useful to God, through His strength - and not our own. 

There are seasons set aside for each of us where God plows - painful times of tilling over shallow areas of our lives. He could have left our rocky places, it would spare us of much pain, yet instead He desires to see us in full bloom! His choices are not easy, but they are good - if we let Him. During times of suffering, when we are perplexed, will we trust the husbandman (farmer) to continue cultivating the ground as He sees fit...? During such times we need to determine, I will wait on the LORD. Even if I do not see or understand clearly now, I will trust and rest, leaning on Him. In due time... Meanwhile, we will not be crushed!