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Growth in God's Forest

by Jerry Ousley  
8/14/2015 / Christian Living

Growth is something done by all living things, flowers, plants and trees in particular. I'm not a gardener by any means. I try to keep the lawn looking nice and neat, trimming around all those flowers and bushes in the yard, but those flowers and bushes are taken care of by my wife. She's the gardener. Twice a year we get a bit of a surprise. We know that they are going to come up but never exactly when. Deb calls them "Surprise Lilies." They aren't there one day and when you get up the next day there they are nearly a foot and a half tall. I admit that they are pretty to look at but I always dread it when they come because they'll stay up for a week or longer and then I've got to figure out how to mow around them without cutting them down. I suppose that's my problem.

I've always wondered how they shoot up so fast. Everything else seems to take days to obtain their mature height. Maybe they are really in the fungus family, I'm not sure; again I'm not the gardener. Other things can take a great deal of time to grow. A tree for instance can take a hundred years to grow and never really stops growing.

Those in the Kingdom of God are like those trees. Listen to the words of Psalm 1:1-3 "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper." I think of a tree growing by a river. Many times where the soil has eroded away the roots seem terribly exposed. You wonder sometimes just how this big heavy monstrous creation of God stands firm and strong day after day. But its roots are deep. We may see part of them where the waters of the river have worn away the dirt. But they go much deeper than that. They are held firmly in place because they have been well-founded in their position.

Of course we see other trees whose root system doesn't go so deep. In times of erosion and high winds they will fall. Jesus told a parable to illustrate this in Matthew 13. He talked about the sower who scattered his seed. Some fell by the wayside and were eaten by the birds; some fell in stony places where they couldn't take root and when the sun was hot they were dried up; some fell among thorns and tried to grow but there came a time when the thorns chocked them out. But others fell in good soil, took root and grew abundantly. We want to be that seed that has fallen in good soil. We want to take root and grow high and strong for the Lord.

That rich soil is the word of God. When we come to the Lord we must make sure that we are planted in the true "Miracle Grow" the word of God. It will give us the nutrients we need to grow strong and tall.

We will go through seasons just like the trees. They stand firm in the summer when the sun is warm and there is rain. They stand strong in the fall as the sap runs down, and their leaves begin to fade and fall. Then the barren winter comes. Without their leaves they look naked and exposed, perhaps even dead. But even then they are pulling the supply they need through their roots in the ground. Soon the spring will arrive when once again buds appear. The sap flows freely and leaves form. Fruit comes on and so the cycle goes.

We are like those trees. We must have the rich soil of the word of God. We need the rain of blessings from God above. But we also will go through those seasons. There will be times that are prosperous. There will be times when it seems we are all but dead. But God is with us. He will keep us. We only need to know this and allow Him to be our supply even in those dreary times. Trust in Him and know that if we hold tightly to Him He will make our roots to go deep into His word and we will grow.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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