We are now in the month of March and I am already preparing for spring, thinking about my garden, and making plans. I inherited my mother’s love for flowers. A retired floral designer, she is an avid gardener. Although my gardens are very humble compared to hers, I still wait in expectation every year this time. I am already planning in my mind what I will plant and where and have even ordered and received in the mail, the seed for sowing.
I love how with the proper environment and a little care, flowers will do what they were created to do; they bloom. They don’t stress or worry about tomorrow, they just are.
In Luke chapter 12 Jesus teaches his disciples not to worry. “Be carefree in the care of God! Does worry add anything to your life? Can it add one more year or even one more day? So if worrying adds nothing, why would you worry about God’s care of you? Think about the Lillies. They grow and become more beautiful, not because they work hard or strive to clothe themselves. Yet not even Solomon, wearing his kingly garments of splendor, could be compared to a field of lilies. If God can clothe the fields and meadows with grass and flowers, can’t he clothe you as well, O struggling one with so many doubts? I repeat it: Don't’ let worry enter your life. Live above the anxious cares of your personal needs. People everywhere seem to worry about making a living, but your heavenly Father knows your every need and will take care of you. Each and every day he will supply your needs as you seek his kingdom passionately, above all else. So don’t be afraid dearest friends! Your loving Father joyously gives you his kingdom realm with all its promises!” - Verses 25-32 TPT Translation.
Flowers simply bloom. They don't worry. They don’t try to be another flower. They don’t worry if they are good enough or beautiful enough. You won’t see a lily trying to be a rose. A flower blooms where it is planted. It doesn’t uproot itself and move to a greener field but as it is faithful to bloom right where it is, the wind comes and carries the seeds, allowing it to reproduce itself into a great harvest. Don’t worry about where you aren’t. In all areas of life: family, work, church, etc… be faithful to bloom where right you are.
If you've read any of my previous posts, you know I love to look up definitions of words to gain a deeper understanding. I looked up the definition of the word "bloom" and this is what I found according to Merriam Webster: to produce or yield flowers, to support abundant life, make the desert bloom, to mature into the achievement of one's potential, freshness, excellence, to shine out. I love these definitions!! John 10:10, says, I come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Matthew 5:16 says, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. I love what Isaiah 35:1-2b says: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
Do you find yourself in a dry place? Don't despair. God wants you to bloom right where you are. Maybe you don't believe you have much to work with. Remember this, every bloom begins with a seed. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.- John 12:24 Even if all you see is decay and death around you, know this: if you are a born-again believer in Christ then you have resurrection power that is living on the inside of you! You were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and resurrected with Christ. You are co-crucified, co-buried, co-risen, and co-seated! See Colossians 2:12, Romans 6:4,8, and Ephesians 2:5-6. You are the planting of the Lord and you are created to bear fruit...you were created to bloom where you are planted. I can look out at my garden now and there are no signs of life but what seems to be dead is not as it appears. Soon, very soon, signs of life will begin to appear and the landscape will be unrecognizable from what it is now. You were once dead in your sin but now you are alive in Christ. You are alive in Him and you are called to bear fruit. (John 15).
So how do we do that? How do we bear fruit? How do we bloom where we are planted, even when the place we find ourselves is not ideal? You need the right elements. One of those elements is light. Jesus is the light of the world. In John 15 He says that He is the vine and we are the branch. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. He is our source and so we must stay connected to Him, otherwise, we will spiritually shrivel up. As a plant needs sun to grow, likewise, we need the Son!
Another element is water. In John 4:14 Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well, "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus has water and He is the Word. According to Ephesians 5:26, we are cleansed by the washing of the water of the Word. We must get in the Word of God daily and let it wash over us. The Word of God is not just a book. It is living! Hebrews 4 tells us that It is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, rightly dividing between soul and spirit. You are a spirit, with a soul, that lives in a body. When you became born again your spirit-man became alive to God but so often we find ourselves still living in the realm of the flesh, the soulish realm. So, let the living water of the Word wash over you! Let it rightly divide what is soul and what is Spirit. We must let the Word which is a sword, prune off everything that would hinder our growth.
One more element I want to mention is soil. We must be rooted in the proper soil. Be rooted in Christ. Let your roots grow deep in Him! The deeper the roots, the stronger the vine. The stronger the vine, the more fruit it will produce. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith..Colossians 2:6-7. Isaiah 61:3: So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” You are the planting of the Lord, called to bring forth fruit so that He is glorified before all men. It's about Him, not us. He get's the glory from the harvest. He get's the glory when we bloom. How do we bloom and bring forth fruit? How do we walk in Christ and stay rooted in Him? I want to leave you with one more scripture that I believe shows us how:
Psalm 1:1-3. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. We don't walk with the wicked but we walk with Him. We delight ourselves in Him and we meditate on His word day and night. It is the Word of God that will renew your mind, according to His purposes. His purpose is that He would be glorified through your life. Just as the flowers are His beautiful creation, so are you. You are called forth to bloom and shine for Him!
The Passion Translation says it like this: What delight comes to the one who follows God's ways! He won't walk in step with the wicked, nor share in the sinner's way, nor be found sitting in the scorner's seat. His pleasure and passion is remaining true to the Word of "I Am," meditating day and night in the true revelation of light. He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree, planted by God's design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of his life. He is never dry, never fainting, ever blessed, every prosperous.
I don't know about you, but I want to be never dry, never fainting, and ever-blessed and ever prosperous! We are called to bloom and bear fruit in every season of our lives!
- Learning to live (bloom) authentically
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