loving

  We've been talking about love the past three Sundays at ‘The SUB’ and, what can I say, I know that some of you are in some very tough patches.  I just want to remind you that when you start to reach out, or start loving, or re-energize yourself to continue loving someone, and see very little results... it is discouraging and sometimes very hard to take.

   One of the things I love to do is to garden...just seem to be wired that way...I like to grow stuff.  Anyway, there's a plant called the Chinese bamboo. It's really emblematic of the way things sometimes go with us.  To grow this thing, you plant the cutting in the ground,  water it, fertilize it, but you see no growth... nothing for the first year. Then you do the same the second year and so on and so forth for sometimes as long as 6 yrs.  Think about it.  You do all that work and put forth a tremendous effort and you see nothing for five or six years, even tho all this time you're weeding, watering, fertilizing and protecting it.  Finally, somewhere around the fifth or sixth year, "Bam"....it sprouts.  The World Book Encyclopedia records that in a single six week period this Chinese Bamboo plant can grow as high as ninety feet and that it can grow three feet in a single twenty-four hour period. It seems incredible that a plant that lies dormant for that many years can suddenly explode with that kind of growth.

   That's the way it is when we start to reach out. Sometimes the results will be slow, but God has you there to be His hands and heart and to be an Ambassador of Himself. As you reach out and love, the Holy Spirit will give you strength to see you through your assignment.

  Focus on fulfilling the purposes of your love.  Don’t be deterred or distracted.  Keep watering, fertilizing, cultivating, weeding and pruning. God will take your love and place it where He wants it, at the rate He wants for those you are reaching out too.

   God may allow you to labor for years with little visible results.  Don’t be discouraged! Underneath the surface things are happening that you can’t see.  Roots are growing down and out, repairing, and convicting, for what is ahead.  Even when you may not see the wisdom of what God is doing, you must trust God. Learn to live with the assurance that He knows what he is doing and that His love for this person runs deep.  Remember Proverbs 19:21:”Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”