Effective blooming takes time. This goes both ways—positive and negative.
A negative example: Ananias and Sapphira. Far from couple of the year, they stuck together doing their own thing. They tricked their community and thought they would fool God too. United, they determined to lie about a number. Sounds so simplistic, right? That lie led to their deaths and their story is etched forever in history as it’s recorded in the Bible. They weren’t living and giving their best right up to this moment. No, they had slowly spiraled out of control until it led to their demise. Sapphira had a chance to save herself, but thought it more important to carry on the charade. Their blooming moment was their undoing.
A positive example: Ruth. A foreigner in both ethnicity and spirituality, she earnestly charmed her way into her husband’s heart and his family. Though widowed young, Ruth determined to stay with her new life and her new mother-in-law. She persevered, though the odds were against her. She was willing to relocate to unfamiliar territory without guarantee for her future because her devotion to God outweighed her fears. She was diligent in her work and soon won the heart of a new husband. Her history contains legacy as she is recorded in the lineage of Jesus. She bloomed gradually and never really got to experience the full effect.
Blooming is a process. It’s not instantaneous. You cannot plant a seed now, saturate it with fertilizer, sunshine, water and love and see results within minutes. All those good factors must be shared out over time. It’s easy to forget this or become easily discouraged when we don’t see immediate impact. Just because we don’t see an instant reaction to our prayers does not mean that God has stopped working or is ignoring us. He is carefully working behind the scenes or below the dirt’s surface.
When the time is right, not according to our faulty clocks but in His divine time, we will bloom.
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I’m linking up with this five minute Friday community.