Mustard Seed part 3
Even something as small as a mustard seed can grow into the biggest tree. Even the smallest baby step of faith can grow into walking on water. The problem, I think, is our microwave, snapshot, gotta have it right this second, mentality. Look, you don't plant a seed and then two minutes later dig it back up and yell at it for not producing fruit. Everything has its time and its season. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. Good things take time and good things come to those who wait. That's why patience--believe it or not--is a virtue. Hebrews 10:36 says, "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." And what is the will of God? What is the WORK of God? "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). Which, of course, is why God dealt to all men THE measure of faith. God doesn't give us impossible missions. He equips and empowers us with everything we need before He requires anything of us. "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing" (Luke 22:35). I'm telling you: We have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. God wanted us to have Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life... so He gave it to us. He gave us His only begotten Son. And His only begotten Son, Jesus, gave His life FOR us... and gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. Did you ever notice in the parable of the sower that the seed... is the Word? And according to Mark 4:26-27, "And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how." We take so much responsibilty on ourselves sometimes. We think we need to produce for God. That's what Cain thought too. But God wanted Abel's sacrifice. God wanted the Lamb. He doesn't want what we can produce. HE is the farmer, and His Word (Jesus, love) is the seed, and it grows all by itself. We don't have to "figure God out." He will reveal Himself to us. And in us. And through us. All we have to do is be open to it. All we have to do is receive and release the gift we've been given. Experience it, by sharing it. Don't try to MAKE it grow, but LET it grow. Don't try to be someone we're not, but let Jesus show us who we really are. By showing us who HE really is IN us. A revelation of Jesus TO you will produce a revealtion of Jesus IN you, and AS you, and THROUGH you. Let me say it like this: The moment was son was born I told him two things. I said, "I've been waiting for you my whole life. I will love you forever." And that's as true now as it was then. But at the same time, every single day I'm amazed at the depths of my love for him. Its like, just when I think I can't love him more... I do. Because the Kingdom of God (the Kingdom of LOVE) is an ever-expanding Kingdom. Love grows as it feeds on itself (Himself). So even if it starts small... don't despise small beginnings. Because seeds grow. Faith grows. LOVE grows. And the fruit that comes--the fruit of the Spirit, which is love--is the only thing that can satisfy humanity's deepest and most powerful appetite.