Speaker: Ben Sigman
Theme: Taking Control
Weekend Music links on iTunes: Lift Us Up to Fall by Tenth Avenue North; Let God Arise by Chris Tomlin; Your Love Never Fails by Chris Quilala; Til I See You by Hillsong United.
Read: James 5:7-11
Think: For the first time ever, my wife and I are trying this year to grow a few things to eat. We’ve got strawberries, peas, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, several kinds of lettuce and a couple of varieties of squash. Growing fruits and vegetables is an interesting process. Real work was required to get started. We built several raised bed planters, scraped some sod, tilled existing soil, removed an unbelievable number of rocks, hauled in additional soil, and planted the seeds and starts. We even set up hoses on a timer to help with the watering. But that was a couple of months ago. Now, we mostly just wait.
Due to this newfound interest in agriculture, my ears perked up when Pastor Ben read James 5:7: “See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop”. I’m not exactly a farmer (yet), but I am drawn to the image. A farmer looking at his crops won’t see anything happening at any given moment. But there is a tremendous amount of activity going on while he waits. In a period of just a few months, tiny seeds produce actual food.
The periods of waiting we experience in our life are like that. Although it may seem like nothing is happening, God uses this waiting time to change us. Pastor Ben suggested that we ask God five questions while we wait:
- What are You doing?
- What do You want me to do?
- What do You want to do in me?
- Who do You want me to meet?
- How can You be honored?
All growth, including spiritual growth, involves waiting, but don’t focus on either the growth or the waiting. Focus on God’s heart and his will, and let the waiting time bring about the growth.
Do: Take a moment to look at a plant today, and reflect on how the passage of time is required for it to grow. Is there an area of your life in which a time of waiting is producing growth?
Pray: Heavenly Father, thank you for the foods farmers grow, not only because I like to eat them, but because they reveal how You’ve incorporated waiting into the rhythm of life. If growth takes waiting, I’ll wait. Show me more of Your heart while I do. Amen.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.
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