One of my favorite things about Jason is that he is passionate about learning and making yourself a better person. He is always telling me new things that he's reading about, listening to sermons and the way that he lives really encourages me to keep learning and challenge myself. I've been doing a Bible study lately by Beth Moore called Stepping Up: A journey through the Psalms of Ascent. I'm a big Beth fan and her studies always challenge me so much; this one being no exception. In one of the lessons this week she was telling a story about an experience she had with her husband in Angola. They had come to do relief work and spent much of their time feeding malnourished locals. While there they learned that many of the areas they worked in would receive seed as an effort to help the community but instead of planting it, they would eat it. It would temporarily fill and satisfy them but in a day or two they would be hungry again. Learning this turned on a light bulb in Beth's head and answered some of the questions she often asked God such as "why do some people see the results of the Word and others don't? Why do some study the Word of God yet remain in captivity? Some just eat the seed and never sow it for a harvest."
This struck a chord in me! Jason always picks on me because he says I swing to extremes; I'm not someone who muddles around in the middle.
If I like something, I love it.
If I'm running, I'm sprinting.
I like to be go, go, go. Finish something and then move onto the next.
So when I read the passage above I was instantly convicted on how I am when I learn things, specifically spiritual lessons. I could hear the most profound teaching and learn things that are groundbreaking and sit on the lessons for oh..maybe a day or two and then it's on to the next bigger and better lesson. This made me think about how sometimes in life I've felt like I was learning the same things over and over again. Maybe because I never fully learned my lesson and so God brought me back to it again. I don't want to just eat the seed that's been given to me and have it fill me up for a short time, I want to plant it and see what happens when it grows.
I've started to apply this principle in my life almost immediately. Last week at Church our pastor talked about casting your cares on Jesus which is powerful, but definitely not a new idea to me. It challenged me though so I prayed about it and talked to Jason later that night about how we can be better about giving God our cares and worries and we prayed together. I thought about it the next day again, but by the day after that it was already starting to fade a little. But after I read my devotions and what Beth said, I immediately thought about what it would mean if I didn't eat the "seed" of casting my cares on Christ and instead planted it in my life. What would it look like if I watered that seed and tended to it? What would happen if every time I found myself worried or stressed I went to God with my concerns instead of trying to fix things by myself? I think that very soon there would be a worn path between me and my Heavenly Father! I think that I would learn to give things up to Him quicker instead of trying to fix things on my own and messing it up more. I think that I would have a lot less stress and a lot more peace in my life.
I want to challenge each of you to think about what God is teaching you and to really sit on it for awhile. Plant whatever seed He has given to you in your life and watch what happens to it when you give it what it needs to grow.
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