GOD Gives the Increase
Try this experiment at home. Find a houseplant (preferably one capable of bearing flowers) and cause a new flower to grow on that plant RIGHT NOW. Come on. Try harder! Okay, how about a leaf? Just make a leaf grow right now. No? A stem? Not even a stem?
You're wise to not try too hard to do what you can't and that's my point. Have you been frustrated lately by not seeing results in what you do? I know I am. I've noticed lately a growing frustration because no matter what I do, there seems to be no result. It's as if I'm doing all of my efforts for nothing. For example, I put up this blog (an its parent website at http://www.arielion.com) of sermons and videos. But (as far as I can tell) there have been next to zero results, other than my friends. No "hits" or viewers other than them. And the same when I have been trying to find a woman or even with my work. There seems to be plenty of effort on my part, but no results, and this has been very frustrating to me.
Maybe you've felt such frustration, too. If so, I want ot share with you what the LORD has given me so that you may be encouraged as I am. the LORD reminded me through the verses of I Corinthians 3:5-7 that my job, like the Believers Paul mentions, is only to plant and water. It is GOD alone who gives the increase. "Only GOD can make a tree", as the old poem goes.
When I was a boy, there were plants that grew all around our house. The flowers were identical in shape, but some would be pink and some white and some blue. It fascinated me so much trying to figure out which would be which that I would open up the buds to see. But soon I realized what I had done. In order to prematurely peek at what GOD was doing inside the bud I had destroyed the very thing I wanted to see. Oh I saw what it would have been, blue or pink or white, but I had ruined the opportunity of the flower I was waiting for. Not only that, but (as I only realized yaers later) that flower never bloomed to fertilize other flowers, so the loss I had caused in my impatience was compounded.
That is what I, and probably you, if you will admit it, do in our impatience at wanting to see results from our actions. Paul calls us to be faiithful in doing good works, especially to the household of faith. In a way, this has nothing to do with the Gospel of telling others about the free gift JESUS offers us which cannot be gotten by any actions other than what He has already done on the cross. But in another way it applies, because in telling others that Good News we may not see results in them. Maybe not for years. Maybe not until eternity. But our job is not to make the growth.
Our job is only to plant the seeds of the Gospekl in their hearts, or to water it if someone has explained it to them before us. It is only GOD alone who can make a Christian. We can only let people know what Christ has done for us and them. By insisting on seeing results, we are making it "about us" as if we are doing something, when as Paul says, the planters and waterers are nothing. It's all about GOD making things grow, whether plant or Spirit.
Another reason you may not be seeing growth is that the LORD is keeping you from harm, either in yourself or others, because of the quality of seeds you are planting or watering. The LORD promises that you will (eventually) reap what you sow, but that's not always a good thing if you're sowing (or watering) unhealthy things, such as lust. He allows the tares to grow with the wheat for reasons of His own, and both will produce a harvest, but both will not result in eternal life. Be careful of what you're sowing and watering. The LORD may, in His Grace, be slowing down your harvest in order to have you have a change of heart to your own good and the good of others.
And, finally, take heart and know that you will reap in due season. That expression is all through the Bible. David uses it, JESUS uses it, Paul uses it. And we see it every day in our lives. You don't get flowers in dead winter. Even JESUS waited until "the fullness of time" to come and save us. Trust the LORD that, if you are faithful in planting and watering, you will eventually reap when He gives the growth as only He can. "Those who sowed with weeping will reap in joy." Believe that and believe the LORD of the Harvest to bless your efforts, here or Home with Him.
Scriptures used in this post (all quoted in King James version below, but the version doesn't really matter).
I Corinthians 3:5-7 "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that plantheth anything neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."
Galatians 6:7-10 "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
Psalm 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
You're wise to not try too hard to do what you can't and that's my point. Have you been frustrated lately by not seeing results in what you do? I know I am. I've noticed lately a growing frustration because no matter what I do, there seems to be no result. It's as if I'm doing all of my efforts for nothing. For example, I put up this blog (an its parent website at http://www.arielion.com) of sermons and videos. But (as far as I can tell) there have been next to zero results, other than my friends. No "hits" or viewers other than them. And the same when I have been trying to find a woman or even with my work. There seems to be plenty of effort on my part, but no results, and this has been very frustrating to me.
Maybe you've felt such frustration, too. If so, I want ot share with you what the LORD has given me so that you may be encouraged as I am. the LORD reminded me through the verses of I Corinthians 3:5-7 that my job, like the Believers Paul mentions, is only to plant and water. It is GOD alone who gives the increase. "Only GOD can make a tree", as the old poem goes.
When I was a boy, there were plants that grew all around our house. The flowers were identical in shape, but some would be pink and some white and some blue. It fascinated me so much trying to figure out which would be which that I would open up the buds to see. But soon I realized what I had done. In order to prematurely peek at what GOD was doing inside the bud I had destroyed the very thing I wanted to see. Oh I saw what it would have been, blue or pink or white, but I had ruined the opportunity of the flower I was waiting for. Not only that, but (as I only realized yaers later) that flower never bloomed to fertilize other flowers, so the loss I had caused in my impatience was compounded.
That is what I, and probably you, if you will admit it, do in our impatience at wanting to see results from our actions. Paul calls us to be faiithful in doing good works, especially to the household of faith. In a way, this has nothing to do with the Gospel of telling others about the free gift JESUS offers us which cannot be gotten by any actions other than what He has already done on the cross. But in another way it applies, because in telling others that Good News we may not see results in them. Maybe not for years. Maybe not until eternity. But our job is not to make the growth.
Our job is only to plant the seeds of the Gospekl in their hearts, or to water it if someone has explained it to them before us. It is only GOD alone who can make a Christian. We can only let people know what Christ has done for us and them. By insisting on seeing results, we are making it "about us" as if we are doing something, when as Paul says, the planters and waterers are nothing. It's all about GOD making things grow, whether plant or Spirit.
Another reason you may not be seeing growth is that the LORD is keeping you from harm, either in yourself or others, because of the quality of seeds you are planting or watering. The LORD promises that you will (eventually) reap what you sow, but that's not always a good thing if you're sowing (or watering) unhealthy things, such as lust. He allows the tares to grow with the wheat for reasons of His own, and both will produce a harvest, but both will not result in eternal life. Be careful of what you're sowing and watering. The LORD may, in His Grace, be slowing down your harvest in order to have you have a change of heart to your own good and the good of others.
And, finally, take heart and know that you will reap in due season. That expression is all through the Bible. David uses it, JESUS uses it, Paul uses it. And we see it every day in our lives. You don't get flowers in dead winter. Even JESUS waited until "the fullness of time" to come and save us. Trust the LORD that, if you are faithful in planting and watering, you will eventually reap when He gives the growth as only He can. "Those who sowed with weeping will reap in joy." Believe that and believe the LORD of the Harvest to bless your efforts, here or Home with Him.
Scriptures used in this post (all quoted in King James version below, but the version doesn't really matter).
I Corinthians 3:5-7 "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that plantheth anything neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase."
Galatians 6:7-10 "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
Psalm 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
posted by Ariel Lion of God | 9:18 AM
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