Monday Meditation: Sprout, Grow & Yield

 

"But other seed fell to the good ground, and produced fruit, sprouting up
and increasing, and it grew-one thirty-fold, and one sixty, and one a
hundred times what was sown."
(Mark 4:80)

Tomato Seedling

Image courtesy/This Is My Garden

One of the reasons we as disciples of Messiah do not grow and mature in
 our walk with Him is because we expect the impossible. We expect God to
 do a radical transformation of our lives and make all our problems instantly
 go away.  Adonai does indeed change us, and He can do so in the blink
of an eye-yet He does not do this according to our design, but to His.

If we had our way, we would enter a relationship with the Lord holding on 
 to all of our previous experiences.  We would emerge on the other side of  
a dramatic transformation with all those experiences still intact-the only
difference being that we would somehow be holier or less sinful from
 that point forward. In reality, however, God does not change us
 and then have us pick up our lives from the moment we left off.

We are suppose to die, and then be born again-we have to start over.

All of us want to be the seed that falls into rich soil and produces grain-
but we want it now, no waiting. We want to go from little seeds that have
no nurturing or sustenance, to suddenly and miraculously
becoming mature and fully functioning believers.

  But in God's economy, the seed needs to sit in the ground for a while,
 growing and maturing as it hides beneath the surface.  

Then, one day, it emerges-not as a mature stalk, but as a tiny
 fragile sprout.  Over an extended period of time, that sprout grows;
 and only when it reaches full maturity does it yield a harvest.

It is not by coincidence or convenience that our maturing process can
be likened to a crop on its agricultural schedule. Like the crops, we cannot
rush things along by artificial means-we must yield ourselves completely
and allow Adonai to mature us in His timing.

When we grow to maturity, we will bring forth our fruit and yield a crop
beyond our expectations-"thirty-fold...sixty...a hundred times what was sown..."

"ADONAI, I yield myself fully to You.  Remove from my heart any agendas
or ideas that I can move You along in my maturing process. I joyfully resign
myself to Your masterful ways, and I await the nurturing of Your Gardener's hand.
I praise You, Father, for planting deep inside me the desire to live for You.
I bless Your Name, for You have plans to grow in me thirty, sixty, even a
hundred times what I could have never sown alone..."

"Sprout, Grow, & Yield"
Messianic Mo'adiym Devotional
Messianic Jewish Devotional For
Israel's Annual Feasts, Fasts, And
Appointed Times
Kevin Geoffrey
Perfect Word Ministries
Copyright 2007
Perfect Word Publishing