"Don't worry if your deeds are small and rewards are few, but remember that the mighty oak was once a nut like you." (unknown)
A little message to anyone struggling with frustrated dreams and confused visions.
My biggest struggle in the last year (or 10) has been understanding God's will for my life and how it will happen. All throughout God has blessed me with gifts and visions of how He may work in my life. My struggles have come when I have not seen these gifts and visions bear fruit in the ways I expected them to, or when I've expected them to. Recently I have been trying to step back from my failed efforts at these big visions to see how God really is in all of this.
Well, like a tree I've been in need of some John 15 pruning and God has been faithful to prune me so that I could bear more fruit. Although I was confused by the pruning, somewhere in the process I have come to learn that my focus has been wrong. I was focusing on the fruit not the "vine." Christ is the source, and without Him there is no fruit, or even the strength needed to hold it. We are called to simply abide (remain, dwell) in Christ and "bear" His fruit.
A lesson I've reluctantly learned is that much like the grass, which is here today and gone tomorrow, (where have I heard that before...) we are also just in passing. The biggest of accomplishments will fade. So however big our dreams and visions, they will not impact in the same ways we tend to think. Okay, that's the tough part, here is the good part. God has a plan and a vision for all of those dreams, and though it may be way different from our perception, everything rooted in Christ will last forever. An entire kingdom will be built on all those small pieces that we plant in Christ. The important thing to remember is that our focus has to be on Christ and the rest will come as it comes. He is faithful and all of our dreams and visions have to be a result of being faithful day by day and trusting God to fulfill those dreams and visions in his timing. He is faithful, it is our job to look 1st toward Christ and 2nd trust that in his timing the visions He has given us will come true.
So how can we do this? Well, for me it has meant stepping back and setting my dreams aside to listen for God's direction. Sometimes we have to let go of our death grip and hold our most precious things with open hands. This also means, we need to focus in on Christ and learn what it means to rest in Him. For me it has been a process of learning to trust in God's timing and have faith that the time will come. It is learning to grasp the idea that no gift we ever hold in our hands is will ever matter more than the giver. Keep your eyes on Christ and your hands open to what He places in them.
Isaiah 55:8-10 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
John 15:1-5 IV John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
On A Mission,
Devin
