Corona Devo 494

When I saw the gorgeous peaches hanging on the tree they looked plump, juicy and perfect.  Like they hadn't a care in the world.  As if the sun and rain had alternately bathed them in perfect proportions and the result was healthy fruit.  Are you in this season today?

But actually, that's only half of their story.  

The vision of our tree filled with fuzzy, plump peach-bulbs made me catch my breath because I knew that their road had not been paved with (only) rays of sunshine and soft raindrops.  My brain flipped back two months earlier when they had almost been buried by a late-April snow.  But they persevered.

I'm not sure how they mustered the life to keep blooming and growing under the weight and variable of those circumstances, but the current-ripening fruit adorning our branches proves that they did.

They persevered.  They went through a trying, heavy, taxing, extreme-circumstance season, and it led to a peaceful, bountiful, beautiful season. 

We have been on both sides too.  There is often heavy-lifting within our faith-life that only-in-time will lead to healthy fruit on the other side.  We must persevere.  Are you in this season today? 

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. (9) We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  ~2 Corinthians 4:8-9

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If you have children or ever work/deal/connect with kids, it can be very rewarding and fruitful.  But it can also be wearying and even dejecting at times.  At any age, they have minds of their own and "training them up in the way they should go" (Proverbs 22:6) can be exhausting due to willfulness, personality, and selfishness (these adjectives can apply to either the parent or child, depending on the situation!).    

Connecting-to and investing-in others (a.k.a. "ministry"!) are privileges that God gives us, but these "opportunities" have at times caused me to emotionally-relate to Paul (the writer of Corinthians) in the tiniest of ways.  Are you in this season today? 

We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. (6) We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. (7) We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. (8) We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. (9) We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. (10) Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.  ~2 Corinthians 6:5-10

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I met a neat couple the other day who, (I found out), had been part of a small church-plant in our area many years ago.  Literally starting with nothing except God's call to establish a church, the pastor moved here from Arizona (Arizona to Cleveland is absolute faith to God's call!) and the small-but-mighty founding team got to work.

If you have ever started something from the seedling of a prayer, it is work.  Hard work.  And I wonder if establishing a church isn't just a wee-bit more challenging than any other type of start-up because satan wants nothing about it to succeed.

But God does succeed through the hard work and efforts of His children.  Getting established, getting the word-out, getting volunteers/staff/and getting people-to-attend takes time and energy and a lot of prayer.  And they invested all of that and all of themselves.    Are you in a similar season today?

I saw the memories, the dedication and some wear and tear in their eyes as they remembered the fellowship and the exhaustion of those years.

But I have also seen with my own eyes the fruit that came and continues-to-come from what they birthed and then nurtured from the infant-stages of a ministry.  Their church has now matured into one of the largest and most-active in our community.  So many people of all ages meet and grow in Jesus there.

Do not grow weary in doing good, for at just the right time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.  ~Galatians 6:9

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Are you a tender blossom buried in snow today?  

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. ~Hebrews 12:1-2

Are you a parent/teacher/grandparent/coach/pastor/boss/mentor investing in another today?  

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  ~Hebrews 13:7

Are you in the "commissioned" stage of something?  Hard work necessary, emotional investment unavoidable, and strong faith required.  Take heart.  Your obedience is a critical piece of God's plan, even though the results won't be visible to us for a while.  But God has already ordained them.  

What season are you in today?  Dumped-on or enjoying-life-in-full-bloom--God is with us in every season.

 

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com