God said so
There’s a first time for everything.
This year, it was a summer garden.
Planted in early May, we had high hopes for the produce we’d be enjoying by the end of the season. Tomatoes for salsa, fried okra, and cucumbers for a delicious loaf of bread. Just keep the plants watered and the sun would do the rest.
Or so the instruction cards said.
Every day, with the water hose stretched across the yard, the plants took in a long drink while the sun beat down on their tender leaves.
Flowers bloomed, but no fruit grew. Stems stretched their way towards the sky, green as ever, but there was no produce in sight. After weeks, I finally spotted a small tomato. Eventually, a single pod of okra was followed by a half formed bell pepper. Months of waiting and watering for a quarter’s worth of veggies.
Good thing we aren’t farmers for a living.
August rolled in with an abundance of storm clouds being carried on the winds of prayer. Rain fell, soaking the dry grounds for days. The backyard flooded, the temperatures dropped, and by the end of the week the plants were bursting with new vegetation and life.
“As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:10-11
More was accomplished through a week of divine rain storms than a summer of hand watering. A day of God’s provision brought about triple the produce of my summer efforts.
And isn’t that the case in life? We work and labor on our own, trying to achieve desired results as if we’re actually in control of the outcomes. As if we can truly accomplish anything of great value independently.
But it was Jesus who reminded us that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Without the aid of the Great Gardener, we’d simply wilt and be fruitless.
Listen, you may feel stuck in the middle of a long, hot, summer drought with no end in sight. A season where it appears very little is being accomplished and it seems you’re coming up shorthanded. The kind of season I’ve been residing in for a while. But, at just the right time, the clouds will form and God will open up the Heavens to supply exactly what’s needed to propel us forward and help us flourish in the calling He has assigned to us.
How do I know? Because He said so. God will accomplish His purposes. Mark His words. They are not empty. Not a single one. God will achieve His desires. Whatever He’s got planned, He will do. The question then, is not how, but when?
At just the right time.
