Sunday, March 19, 2017

Devotion 3.20.17

Strength - Psalm 1

It is officially Spring today.  It has certainly felt like Spring these past few weeks around here, and the trees and plants are responding to the warm weather as though Spring has arrived with buds coming out and shoots springing forth.  Baseball always arrives in late winter and early spring with players reporting and then squads working out and playing games in its preseason.  The grass is getting green, coming out of its dormancy and the shops are stocked with new flowers and vegetables to plant.  Spring is a great time of year.

Of course, we all begin our Spring activities, and then nature comes back and says, "Wait a minute, I'm not done," and gives us a few more freezes with frost.  This can be disastrous for those in agriculture, especially our grape growers, but it is the risk we assume.  Yet it is the Spring where we invest our time and our energy in beginning the growth cycle by planting and providing essential nutrients to the soil and to the budding plants to encourage growth.

In our spiritual lives we find a similar cycle to the season of Spring, of planting a seed and providing essential nutrients for growth.  That growth is not instantaneous but is nurtured over time.  In Psalm 1, David says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,... but his delight is in the law of the LORD and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away." (1 - 4)

Our faith lives grow over time.  We meditate on God's Word, pray, worship, and receive the healing forgiveness and strength through the sacraments.  While all we do may not necessarily prosper (our spiritual lives have those freezes and frosts which can set us back in spiritual terms) in earthly terms, we certainly prosper through this redeeming faith in Christ and become like trees planted by streams, producing fruit. "Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." (Matthew 7:17)

Pray that we stay in God's Word and meditate on it.  Pray that we are those healthy trees producing good fruit through Christ Jesus.

Hope Men's Ministry

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