GROWTH IN PROGRESS

A quick “run-to-the-car” yesterday evening provided a brief glance of the shrubs in front of my house. I had to do a double-take because I took notice of the once sparsely covered frame of a bush that had now become lush, and full of shiny green leaves. It was beautiful! it almost looked as if someone had perfectly shaped it. You would have never guessed that bush would look like this now, because it seemed like the winter time had taken it’s toll on it just a few months ago. I guess if it could have spoken to me during those winter months it would have said something like “I know I don’t look like much. I am not beautiful to look at right now. Just know that what you see on the outside does not even begin to tell the story of what’s happening on the inside. I might look like I am dying and need to be discarded, but actually there is growth in progress. In my season I will spring forth!”

In many ways I feel like that bush. I have been and still am experiencing a winter season where there isn’t much going on externally in terms of me fulfilling my God-ordained purpose. I am sure to some my outer appearance is one that looks tired and perhaps indicates that I am at that point, ready to throw in the towel (at times I have felt like it). But there is something going on in the inside of me. God is doing a work in me. There is something being stirred up. It’s like I am being regenerated in a sense. The things that were designed to destroy me have given me a sheer determination. Sometimes people refer to this process as “growing pains” because growth is not necessarily a pleasant experience. It often requires pruning and harsh conditions, but in the end the result is well worth it.

Perhaps you are in a growth phase in your life, too. Like me, you are experiencing a time of pruning, a time where you are being put under pressure. I know for me it is not easy and at times it literally drains me, but I cannot give up and neither can you. This is MY declaration as I “grow” through:

I am growing into who He has called me to be.

I will bear fruit.

I will live and not die.

It is my season!

Declare this over your life today! Be encouraged!

___________________________________________________

~ “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal. John 12:24-25 (Msg)

~ That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition]. Colossians 1: 10

~ So neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but [only] God Who makes it grow and become greater. 1 Corinthians 3: 7