Growing Pains
Excerpt from “Someone Else’s Diary, Vol. II”
By Ree
In talking with a friend one day, he made mention that he was missing the closeness he used to enjoy with the Lord. He said that he used to grow spiritually in leaps, but as of late, had not been growing at all. Undoubtedly, this was frustrating to him. To know the sweet spirit of Jesus and to be intimate with the Lord and then, for some inexplicable reason, the presence of the Lord can no longer be felt...we’ve all been there.
I thought about this man’s trouble. My reply to him was "Nothing grows continually." Nature is a great example of this truth. Leaves reach the pinnacle of their lives in the fall. The color turn is brilliant; smatterings of bright yellow, red, orange, and brown is the envy of any painter's pallet. But then the leaves turn brown and dry, and as winter sets in, fall from the trees. Does this mean the tree has died? Not at all...the tree is merely dormant.
When spring arrives, new branches shoot out from the old, new buds appear, and the growth becomes apparent. And sometimes near the tree, new trees have taken root where seeds dropped from the first tree. New life springs up in the most unexpected places…miraculously.
We do not grow all the time. We need rest from growing sometimes, but what appears to be our dormant stage, is really when we are doing our growing. We are wrestling to move closer to God, we are actively seeking His will, reading His word, and searching for His face. We are fighting to overcome our unbelief. We are pushing through the darkness, all the while longing to regain that feeling of closeness to the Lord.
The dormant part of our spiritual walk is when we get to sit back and take a breather after the exercise is over. That is when we can be still long enough to look around to see the new fruit in our lives…we are more assured in our faith, we have touched those who have watched our battle, and we have ministered in ways we cannot even fathom sometimes.
Our growth does not happen when we feel the presence of the Lord. It happens when we don’t.
By Ree
In talking with a friend one day, he made mention that he was missing the closeness he used to enjoy with the Lord. He said that he used to grow spiritually in leaps, but as of late, had not been growing at all. Undoubtedly, this was frustrating to him. To know the sweet spirit of Jesus and to be intimate with the Lord and then, for some inexplicable reason, the presence of the Lord can no longer be felt...we’ve all been there.
I thought about this man’s trouble. My reply to him was "Nothing grows continually." Nature is a great example of this truth. Leaves reach the pinnacle of their lives in the fall. The color turn is brilliant; smatterings of bright yellow, red, orange, and brown is the envy of any painter's pallet. But then the leaves turn brown and dry, and as winter sets in, fall from the trees. Does this mean the tree has died? Not at all...the tree is merely dormant.
When spring arrives, new branches shoot out from the old, new buds appear, and the growth becomes apparent. And sometimes near the tree, new trees have taken root where seeds dropped from the first tree. New life springs up in the most unexpected places…miraculously.
We do not grow all the time. We need rest from growing sometimes, but what appears to be our dormant stage, is really when we are doing our growing. We are wrestling to move closer to God, we are actively seeking His will, reading His word, and searching for His face. We are fighting to overcome our unbelief. We are pushing through the darkness, all the while longing to regain that feeling of closeness to the Lord.
The dormant part of our spiritual walk is when we get to sit back and take a breather after the exercise is over. That is when we can be still long enough to look around to see the new fruit in our lives…we are more assured in our faith, we have touched those who have watched our battle, and we have ministered in ways we cannot even fathom sometimes.
Our growth does not happen when we feel the presence of the Lord. It happens when we don’t.
posted by Ree @ 11:18 AM
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