By Alyssa Hage

This is the second in a special five-part weekly series for March – we’d like to celebrate spring and the opportunities it presents, both physically to the new life on earth, or spiritually to the work Christ is springing forth from our hearts, and pray this series blesses you as you blossom in Christ!

“And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone:
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal.”
{John 12:23-25}

Seeds are little storehouses entrusted with a plan of God’s design and once planted they release the design imprinted on them. Each of you has God’s plan imprinted on your heart and when God settles you in places that nurture growth, you may accomplish all God intends. Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Unless the Lord Jesus had died for us, He would’ve been the only One to spend eternity in Heaven. But because He died, many are saved from sin and will spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

Plant seeds are perishable, but the seeds of God’s Word endure forever. The seeds of God’s Word are planted in fertile hearts and are propagated in yielded lives. 1 Peter 1:22-25: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

The parable Jesus taught about the seeds in Matthew 13:1-23 is summarized by the following quote, “One for the rock, one for the crow, one to die, and one to grow.” How a seed will grow depends on where it’s planted; how God’s Word is heeded depends on the heart of the hearer. What kind of heart do you have for the Word of God to grow in?

I reap only what I sow. No planting of bulbs in the fall, no tulip blossoms come spring; no effort in speaking to a new girl at church, no friendship will bloom. We harvest according to the kind of seed we plant; so it is with our actions toward others. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8: “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” Notice the superlatives—all grace, always, all sufficiency, all things, every good work? God always supplies everything we need to bring forth fruit to His glory. The more bulbs I plant in the fall, the more blooms I will have in the spring. The more I do what God commands, the more Fruit of the Spirit He will produce in my life. Galatians 6:7-9: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Tips for Your Garden

Seeds that are more than two years old are less likely to sprout and produce flowers, fruits, and vegetables. As the growing season comes to a close, pluck extra blooms from vegetable plants. These late blooms won’t mature into produce, and removing the blooms will divert growth to already developing produce.Feel free to share any gardening comments below!

Next week, we’ll be back to rejoice in the water with which the Lord waters our heart-gardens.

~Alyssa K. Hage
{Guest Writer} 

By Alyssa Hage

This is the first of a special five-part weekly series for this new month – we’d like to celebrate spring and the opportunities it presents, both physically to the new life on earth, and spiritually to the work Christ is springing forth from our hearts, by focusing on this topic on our forum. We pray it is a blessing to you, sister!

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him,
and established in the faith, as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
{Colossians 2:6-7}

Plants will not survive without roots. We are much like plants; we will not survive without roots. Roots are the avenue by which the plant receives nourishment; they hold the plant stable and store extra nutrients. Sincere love in action (what the Bible calls “charity” in 1 Corinthians 13) nourishes, stabilizes, and provides us with stores for the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The most deeply rooted people are those who are grounded in God’s perfect love and thus they flourish, not easily blown away by the fierce wind of adversity. Ephesians 3:17-19: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” There has been much debate about these four dimensions of God’s love, but a little child held in the loving arms of his mother knows exactly how all-surrounding love feels. This is the everlasting love with which God loves us!

As we grow in God’s love, our garden and our character both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season. Weeds are unsightly, rob soil of water and nutrients from cultivated plants, harbor diseases, serve as hosts for pests, cause unwanted shade, crowd crops, and block air circulation. Weeds rooted in the heart, like jealousy, self-pity, unjustified anger, and bitterness are more destructive than weeds rooted in the earth. An offense can cause a bitter spirit. It will germinate and spread, color our personality, affect our behavior, and choke our relationship with God. The longer a weed grows, the harder it is to uproot. The more sin grows, the harder it is to get rid of. Prompt removal is the way to avoid trouble made by weeds and it’s the only way of dealing with bitter roots that can overrun the heart. Hebrews 12:14-15: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, f and thereby many be defiled.”

Every evil thing Satan plants shall be rooted up. Matthew 15:13: “But He (Jesus) answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Trials are God’s experiment to prove us; suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of godly character.

The root of the matter: let God’s love take deep root in your life.

Tips for Your Garden

Rooting hormones, a chemical compound synthesized in powder or liquid form can be introduced to new plants or transplants to encourage new root production. A recommended amount is simply added to water in the planting hole before placing the plant firmly in the hole.

~Alyssa K. Hage
{Guest Writer} 

by Sarah Bryant

“The LORD is good to all:
and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
{Psalm 145:9}

What do you desire? What does your heart wait for? Is there something that has been on your prayer request list for many months—even years—that remains unanswered? Maybe you have interceded for the salvation of a dear family member or spiritual renewal? Or does your groan with impatience for graduation or another major life step? Are you impatient to be married? Or maybe you are waiting for God to provide financially for a family need? What about a “great opportunity to witness” for Christ and do something world-impacting? Whatever you are waiting for today, I would like to ask you, how are you waiting?

Impatience or Submission

Waiting. How do you wait today? Are you pacing the floor with impatience, wondering if God’s timing truly is best? While waiting, we often encounter with a grimace the impatience if our souls to wait for God’s perfect timing — sometimes a time line that is not what we hoped or prayed for.

The Lord has put a certain desire on my heart which I have prayed toward and waited for a long season now. Knowing I have asked for this in accordance with His revealed will in His Word, it has become a matter of diligent intercession. However, He has not deemed the time right yet to answer in the affirmative. At times, I am ashamed to admit, the fear has crept in my heart that maybe God will not answer my prayer?

Trusting that God is Good

While waiting, we are called to trust God wholeheartedly — to trust ourselves to His incredible goodness and impeccable character, believing that no matter what God’s timing is, or how He answers our heart’s desire, that He is good. We must be committed to never waver in our knowledge of His goodness. The Psalmist in 130:5 said that “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope,” and that is exactly how we must wait. Not twiddling our fingers, but calling to our hearts and minds to God’s holy unfailing promises. They never fail. As humans, we can hardly understand that incredible truth of God’s unchanging, unfailing word. We fail, we make mistakes, we misspeak, and we often break our promises. However, God does not. Through the Old Testament prophet, He proclaimed, “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). Therefore, He is utterly worthy of our complete (although finite) trust. Filling our minds with His precious promises (2 Peter 1:4) is a beautiful way to quiet our impatient, waiting hearts!

I encourage you to spend several hours studying God’s promises to those who wait faithfully on Him. Your heart will be left awed and speechless, worshipping Him for His goodness toward His people! A friend recently shared with me a list of God’s promises to those who wait for Him that she personally studied. I would love to share them with you here.

»Ps. 25:3; Is. 49:23 You will not be ashamed.
»Ps. 25:5 You will be led and taught in God’s Truth.
»Ps. 25:21 You will be preserved.
»Ps. 27:14 Your heart will be strengthened.
»Ps. 33:20 The Lord will help and shield you.
»Ps. 37:9 You will inherit the earth.
»Ps. 37:34 God will exalt you.
»Ps. 40:1; Micah 7:7 God will incline His ear unto you and hear you.
»Ps. 52:9 You will be an encouragement and example to other Believers.
»Ps. 59:9 God will be your defense.
»Ps. 62:1 Your salvation will be from Him.
»Ps. 62:5 Your expectation will be from the Lord and nobody else.
»Ps. 123:2 God will show mercy to you.
»Ps. 145:15 God will give you food in due season.
»Prov. 20:22 The Lord will save you.
»Is. 25:9 You will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
»Is. 30:18 You will be blessed.
»Is. 33:2 God will be gracious to you, He will be your arm every morning, and He will be your salvation in times of trouble.
»Is. 40:31 Your strength will be renewed.
»Is. 64:4 You will have things God has prepared for you that eye hasn’t seen not ear heard.
»Lam. 3:25 The Lord will be good to you.

A Sovereign Planner

Have you ever marveled for hours on the fact that God, our Savior, made the heavens and the earth and all creatures and man with simple a word? A word! What power does our word hold? Not much — we cannot speak anything into being! God’s power is that great! When I find myself marveling in this truth, my doubts fade away as vapor. How can I ever doubt His plan and timing in something so small, in comparison to His power revealed in the world around us? His view is eternal, and mine so limited by time. His plan so vast and higher than I can imagine, for I am finite. Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” What an incredible thought!  The heavens are so high, so unattainable, and the universe so vast. And its Creator takes time—delights in—using me for His glory and doing all things for my eternal good (Romans 8:28)! “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17)

The Lamb is Worthy

As the Lord was showing me His awesome power and plan, He also showed me another important aspect of waiting. The promises He provides are too good to speak of; however, that is not the only reason we are to wait for God to work out His perfect, sovereign plan. In Revelation,we quickly read why:

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).

God sent His OWN SON — how many times have we heard that, that we do not even stop to think of its significant meaning?—His own perfect Being, into this world to save His own creature. There was nothing to cause Him to do that except His incomprehensible mercy; He would have been fully justified to send every man to hell. We have sinned infinitely against His holy nature. As my favorite preacher Paul Washer said, “Never ONCE have you loved God as He ought to be loved. There is not one moment that Christ did not love God.”

God is worthy. He is worthy of everything. EVERYTHING — and still more! This fact alone gives us reason to trust Him forever, no matter what He brings along. He has showed love and mercy to the unlovable — toward you and me — and saved us from His just wrath. Therefore, we trust Him with our souls, and we trust Him with every small area of our life.

In Closing

I encourage you, dear waiting sister, not to stand despairingly with limp arms, wondering if the Lord Almighty has heard your desires and your requests. Trust Him and His promises, for “this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15). Lay your desires at God’s feet, and leave them there. The Maker of Heaven and earth holds them in His hand and is aptly able to bring them into being with one word.

I am here to joyfully attest that when we do just as God has commanded in asking Him in faith, and then patiently waiting on His perfect timing, there is found true joy.

And in this alone do I find true peace…

Just as He promised.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee“ (Isaiah 26:3).

Peace to you,

I am blessed to share this special testimony by a sister in Christ, Martha Joy, about the importance of Scripture memory. This is a topic near to my own heart, so I am so thrilled to see other young girls who have heeded God’s command to hide His Word in our hearts (Psalm 119) and to cherish it forever. Here is a small starting list of passages to memorize.

Daniel 2:20-23, chapter 9
Ruth 1:16-17
Isaiah 12, 42, 53
Isaiah 61:10-11
Psalm 116, 24, 37, 63, 145, 139, 57, 42, 16, 40
Psalm 119
Ephesians 3:14-21
1 Corinthians 13
1 Peter 1:3-21
1 Peter 2:18-25
John 17 and other prayers of Christ
1 Thessalonians 5:14-28
Romans 11:33-36
Ephesians 1:15-19, 4:23-32
Galatians 5:13-22
Colossians 1:9-11
Colossians 3
2 Corinthians 4
Philippians 3

Grab a warm cup of tea, and let’s hear what Martha has to share. May we each “love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” (Psalm 119:127)

Praising the Triumphant King Who Came to Earth,

_________

Memorization…what a wonderful way to hide God’s Word in our hearts! “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”(Psalm 119:11) In the Psalms, David talks a lot about hiding the Lord’s word in our hearts, and meditating on His goodness. Psalm 119 especially expresses this thought. I find this chapter to be very encouraging!

In my daily devotion time with the Lord, I often come across verses which I would like to preserve for a later date. Verses tucked away in your heart can be so helpful in a time of sorrow or sadness, a time of joy or thanksgiving, a time of struggling, or a time of sharing Jesus’ wonderful love with others! “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105) I am currently working on memorizing Proverbs 31:10-31, which is such a wonderful passage for us, as daughters of the King, to remember! There are so many verses in the Bible which apply for us, as young maidens, and for us as we get married, if it is the Lord’s will.

The Bible has so many things for us to remember. The Lord filled His book to the brim with words of encouragement to those in time of struggling. He knew that for us to walk in His Way, we would struggle, and to find His Way, we would need encouragement, from His wonderful Book. I am still learning things from it which I have never noticed before. Sometimes if you are having a bad day or not feeling good, if you just come to the Lord’s Word, perhaps He will show you a special verse which will fill your heart with a new hope of obtaining a better attitude for the next incident. This has happened to me so many times! “The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.” (Psalm 119:144)

Also, if you ask Him for spiritual guidance, every morning, for the day ahead, then He will most assuredly help you through the day, and help you to do His will.“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” (*Psalm 119:133)

Psalm 144:12b says: “that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a place.” So, let us be. And to be this, what better way to walk with the Lord and be strong pillars in our father’s house, than to memorize patches of scriptures, so that we can have them to encourage others when needed. A tired daddy, coming in from working in the garden, a mommy, exhausted from a days work of cleaning, a brother or sister, having a bad day, or when we go to a friend’s house or to town…why not share a verse of encouragement to someone we know or don’t know. Recently, I saw a gospel tract…it said something to the extent of: “Hi! Since I may never see you again, I’d like to tell you about Jesus.” Of course, then it included verses and other information. I just thought that was quite interesting. Think of it. Just say that you go to town with your family and they ask you to run in to the grocery store to get some last minute items. You quickly run in, passing people as you go. You get the items, then go up to the check out to pay. The check-out girl or boy rings you up, and then you pay and leave. Think of that 50 seconds that you could have spent, using those verses that you have hidden in your heart, to tell the cashier about your love for Jesus. You may never even see them again…have you ever thought of that? Or what about all those others you saw in town? It is a great idea, to come up with a few verses of great encouragement and keep them in your heart, to share with others, or make a gospel track. But, always be ready to answer some questions.

So, as Hebrews 3:13a says, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today…” let us memorize gems of encouragement, so that we can share them with others in need. So, let’s show God our love and desire for Him, by hiding His word in our hearts! “Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.” (Psalm 119:38)

I pray that the Lord greatly encourages you through your closer walk with Him! “I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” (Psalm 119:16) As you endeavor to hide the Lord’s word in your heart, just remember that it will stay there forever, and you can use it all for the glory of Him! “So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.” (Psalm 119:44)

“So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.”
{Psalm 119:44}

Seeking with you,
Martha Joy

Martha Joy (13) is a home schooled daughter in her daddy’s home. She desires to encourage others in her Lord, and to be a more faithful and pure daughter for Him!