Don’t Quit Before God’s Done

Bamboo

Learn a lesson from the bamboo plant …

“Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.

Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.” Romans 12:11,12 The Message

 Although we’re to ‘endure hardship’ (II Timothy 4:5) we are not to expect it to last the rest of our lives! We are to wait the hardship out while maintaining our hope and expectation. The reason we find purpose in the enduring is because we believe what we wait for is worth the wait, and that we won’t have to wait forever!

– the victory will come

– Godly character will be developed

– God’s plan will be fulfilled in our lives

– the pieces will all fit in the end

But we can’t quit!

We keep shoveling coal into the boilers of our steam engines because we know there’s just one single degree of temperature difference between hot water and steam. Don’t settle for hot water when you need steam to move.

To move the illustration from mechanical to nature, consider the Chinese Bamboo plant. Your goal is to have a bamboo tree so you plant the seed, fertilize it, water it and wait … and wait … and wait … and wait. For one year, then two. You continue to water and fertilize into the third and fourth years with no apparent result to be seen.

Oh, but in that fifth year something astonishing happens. That ‘under producing’ bamboo plant suddenly grows 80 feet in just six weeks!

The question we must confront is this: Did that plant grow 80 feet in one and a half months? No … it took five years to grow to that height. That explosive growth in the first year would have produced a tree without the roots to support its height.

The faithful watering, the expense of fertilizer and the work involved in applying them finally pays off. And so it is with what God is endeavoring to do in your life. The Christian life is a process. Don’t thwart God’s intentions by giving up too early.

This week consider … in this present difficult time of your life, you may think you’re waiting on God. He may be waiting on you … to grow, to believe, to learn, to develop patience, to gain spiritual strength and stamina.

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4 The Message

 Check Youtube for another Fresh Heart video … “Let God Choose”

 

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