God's Garden

John 15:1 - 4 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Wilderness

As I am finishing reading through the Bible in a year, I have been reading about the Israelites and their journey to the Promised Land.  It's interesting to me that the 7 day (or so) journey took them 40 years.  Of course sitting here I can offer many suggestions and wisdom to them.  Stop complaining, trust God, stay on course, don't look back, and "Do you really think He brought you here to leave you to die?"  But then I look at my own life, the patterns that have been developed, and have the same advice for myself.  Without going into specific examples, I have seen the same issues come up time and again, but at different places and with different people.  The same problems I encounter come up over and over again, until I finally learn what it is I am being taught.  Oh how I wish I could just learn the lesson the first time, master it, and not return to the same mountain.  God is in the process of training us to be conformed to His image.  So He uses people and situations in our lives to develop these character traits.  Once learned, we don't have to go through the painful process of relearning.  We simply apply His wisdom and show patience, love, kindness, or whatever it was we learned. 

Right now my husband and I are in a faith test, again.  We went through a multi-faith test back in 2007.  Several issues came up at once, and we applied our faith in God and His plans for us.  One by one the miracles happened.  But for some reason, that is not always the case.  We lose sight of the end and focus on the trials we are going through.  We really believe that He has placed us on this course.  We have prayed and sought His wisdom every step of the way.  But for some reason, the timing is turning out to be different than we anticipated.  In 2007 things happened, boom boom boom.  No waiting at all.  But we didn't know it would turn out that way going in.  It just happened that there was no waiting.  Now we have been here for over a year and are about where we started.  What a faith test!  So do we give up and return to Egypt?  No.  Should we worry that He will not provide for us?  No, He said He will "meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus".  I believe God for each days' supply of manna.  It is so hard to not look at tomorrow and wonder if there will be manna for us.  But He is already in our tomorrow, waiting with our daily supply.  And we have a direct command from Jesus to not "worry about tomorrow". 

I am applying my faith, believing God will see us through to the end.  And I am going to finish with the lessoned learned, not to repeat this lesson again. 

In Christ,

Kerry

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for linking up to the Crazed Fan weekend Hop. I was the guest host this week (http://tawnassecret.blogspot.com) and am just making sure I am following everyone on the list:) I wanted to also invite you to link up to my own personally hosted hop open thru today and every Friday-Sunday at http://tawnasplan.blogspot.com

    Have a wonderful day! I am now y our newest follower!
    Tawna

    BTW: The pic of jesus praying on the rock? I just thought I would share. I made one of those for my Mom a few years back and she loved it. I kept mine white though. I like it in color too!

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  2. Tawna,

    My Grandma painted this a few years ago.

    Kerry

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  3. I'm a new follower from the Sunday blog hop! I would love a follow back!

    I think God has a plan for all of us but he has his own timing!!! Good luck, it will all work out in the end!

    Hope
    http://www.peanutbutterandhopey.com

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  4. Great Post- lol- unfortunately God's timing is not always the same as ours!

    Wanted to remind you-if you haven't already done so, hop on over to the *NEW* Blogging Buddies site (we have moved and gone social!)

    Add your profile and blog, facebook & twitter links to the appropriate groups. You can also "like" our Facebook fan page from there.

    The Blogging Buddies Social Network

    Have a Blessed Easter!

    Carolee
    Come On Home

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  5. Our priest mentioned once (pointed out?) that it took 40 years because that is the amount of time it would take to move through one whole generation so that those who might bring "old attitudes" with them into the promised land would either be changed or gone by the time the Israelites reached the promised land. If that makes sense? It did to me - it indicated that the time we need for God to work in our lives is sometimes a longer journey as we leave old attitudes behind. Just a thought to share!

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