“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 ESV
Yesterday as I picked blackberries for the first time this year, I was overcome with the awareness that America needs to invite missionaries from other Countries to come and lead us back into revival. For the past 150+ years, America has sent missionaries around the World to spread the good news that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been received with enthusiasm and the hope that is Jesus absorbed and clung to with absolute joy and thanksgiving by those receiving. We need the students to become the teachers and come to this land of plenty, this land of immeasurable bounty, this land that has lost its way, this Country that was founded on the principles of Jesus blood and righteousness. We need the revival that was sparked by our ancestors to return to our land and that ember needs fanned by the fresh air of hope and certainty of truth that the same Gospel shared throughout the World still delivers.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
Blackberry bushes are remarkable, living organisms. You can trample them, bush hog them, mistreat them and almost without question, the next season they will come back larger, stronger and yielding more fruit than the year before…after the abuse released on them.
What if your life represents something similar? What if the trampling, the stomping, the cutting, the dishonoring is used as fertilizer for the life that God has planned for you? Please know that I in know way intend to diminish what you have gone through, rather create in you an expectation for the future and an acceptance that your life’s traumas and trials were for something greater. What if the experiences you have endured were to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? What if your life experiences deliver the fruit that others need to discover the hope that is Jesus Christ?
I love to pick blackberries for a multitude of reasons. I love to eat them. I love how God speaks to me during those moments of sweat, searching and filling my little white plastic pail. I love to listen to the birds around me. I love the solitude. There are few places that God speaks more clearly to me than in those thorny patches. As my hands become scratched and bleeding, sweat causes bug spray to run into my eyes, my clothes become saturated and wet, the joy of the fruit overrides all of these ancillary things. The hard work delivers a beautiful bounty of fruit and clarity of hope.
We have a choice. Trust and accept or reject and regret. I see more and more that an abundant life comes from an accepting heart. All that you have been through is for this moment, in this season. All of your life experience has prepared you for this season of bearing fruit. You are God’s beloved child and he desires the richness and fullness of a joy-filled life for you. Why not lay down the shield and pick up the bucket for harvesting?
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
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