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| When Famine Hits Our Souls |
Famine causes calamity, catastrophe, disaster and tragedy.
This is very true of our physical being but it is also very true of our spiritual being. It is vital in our walk with God to feed on His Word daily to receive the nutrients that He provides for us as we journey through life. His Word is food for our Soul. Scripture tells us that we do not live on bread alone but on God's Word (Luke 4:4) and it refers to it being our bread of life (John 6:4) as well as pure milk for those who are new believers (1 Peter 2:2). We must hunger and thirst for righteousness, for then we shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).
Well, life happens and we all live it. We all have jobs to do, activities to be active in, hobbies to enjoy, families to love and care for, perhaps school to attend and the list can go on and on. Things are good. Things are fine. Things are OK. Then, things are not so good...not so fine...not so OK. What seemed to have happened to get us here? We were once in a place where things were lush and green, life was going well. Prosperous and fruitful. We were feeling satisfied and well taken care of. Perhaps it was heartache, loss, disappointment, stress, disobedience, busyness or any other stuff that may have come our way distracting us from God and His life-line to our souls. It's easy to get to this point really. We don't feel it right away. It's one skip of reading the Bible...one skip of quiet time with God...one skip of going to church because who's really going to miss us anyway?!...one skip of saying a prayer because God knows everything anyways...one skip of Bible Study because we didn't finish our lesson plus WE ARE TOO TIRED!...one skip...one skip...one skip and before we know it we've skipped our way right into barren land. We are smack center in the desert and we wonder, "How in the world did we get here, Lord?"
No matter how we find ourselves in deserted, barren land with a famine within our souls, God will meet us right where we are. We do not have to go wondering around looking for Him. However, we are in this dry and barren land that now needs to be nourished in order to be productive. I am no farmer by any means but I do know that no crop of any kind can or will grow in a ground that is hard, dry, and unfertilized by nutrients. God does not want us to starve spiritually so He does what every good parent does...He equips us with what we need to be healthy. This is not always a pleasant or comfortable process, but it is very necessary for us to become strong again.
Like a farmer preparing a field for a crop, he must first turn over the ground. Our dry and barren land that we stand upon must be broken turning it over multiple times. This must be done by rows of razor sharp discs pulled by a tractor navigated by the farmer. He is very precise in how he is driving the tractor and very careful on how those discs enter the ground breaking it up. He is not angry, upset or disappointed in the land. He is not taking pleasure to be causing this disruption but he cares very much for the land and knows that is very much needed for it to be productive. He sees the potential in the land and works the land getting it to its potential. He continues by nurturing it and tending to it consistently. Pruning...weeding...plucking out dead plants...watering it until the land has finally become rich in soil, crops deeply rooted producing much fruit.
The same is true of us. We are like the dry and barren land that is in much need of being broken and turned over by God's grace. It's not always easy, comfortable and many times we absolutely do not even like it, but God loves us far too much to leave us spiritual starved. While we are in the middle of being "disced" we have hope and the promise of Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." This is also a time where trust in His work comes in. We need to put our trust in Him knowing that He is working in us for our good for His purpose in our lives. Psalm 27:14 encourages us, "Trust in the LORD. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the LORD." Through our struggles, our hardships our faith is being tested. We can fix our eyes on Christ allowing Him to prepare us to become rich in soul, deeply planted and producing much fruit. In order to get to that point we must go through the transforming part of "discing, ground breaking, pruning, weeding, and plucking". Through all of this God's sweet grace is always upon us, watering and feeding us with such True nutrients. 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." We are who we are because of Christ. Praise Him! We are better!
We've fixed our eyes on God putting our trust in Him with ALL of our BARRENNESS. Our faith has grown. Our soul is rich...we are deeply rooted in Him. We are growing and producing fruit sharing it with others who need to feed from our life story and sharing what God has done for us. Wow! God is so good...all the time! Psalm 145:9 exclaims, "God is good to one and all; everything He does is suffused with grace."
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| You are beautiful! |
Take care & Be blessed,
Christy Krezman
Rosette Ministry
