Читать книгу When Hearts Heal - Linda K. Estes - Страница 12

8…GROWTH

Good morning! There are so many things throughout God’s creation that can be used as an analogy to describe our Christian walk. I was thinking about that as I was looking at the three rosebushes I planted in front of my house last year. It’s amazing how much they’ve grown in just a year’s time. For weeks now I’ve noticed that almost daily new buds appear on the bushes. And now after a year of growth, those buds are beginning to open, revealing the beauty of God’s creation…the perfect rose.

We also have to grow in our spiritual life before we can bloom into the child God desires us to be. During this growing process, just like with the rosebushes, we will need to be pruned to remove the sin that gets in the way of us maturing in our faith. As long as we allow sin in our life, our growth will be stunted, thus the need for pruning. It can be painful but the pruning is absolutely necessary for our continued growth. Proverbs 3:12 says it this way, “For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” And Hebrews 12:6 reinforces that statement. “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines.”

I have found over the years that it is wiser to act immediately when the Holy Spirit shows me an area of my life I need to work on. If I don’t heed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and deal with my sin, I know the Lord will get my attention about it in another way, and that way is usually painful. But once the necessary pruning has been finished, just like with the rose, we become the unique creation that we were meant to be. This change doesn’t happen overnight but when it does we can then live a life that glorifies God in all we do. So here’s to doing our part and allowing what is necessary to prune and mature us in our walk with the Lord.

Lord, thank you for loving us enough to prune us when necessary and help us always bloom for You. Amen.