"Encourage each other daily, while it is still today." -Hebrews 3:13
Showing posts with label Flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flowers. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

God Does Great Things With Your Tiny Seeds


Photo credit: Free-images.com


It was a science experiment for 5-year-olds: All the children in a kindergarten class dropped flower seeds into sidewalk cracks around their school to see what would happen. For weeks, they saw nothing. Then, to their delight, flowers sprouted and bloomed in those unlikely habitats! The children didn’t need to understand all the science behind how flowers grow before starting their experiment. They only needed the desire to scatter the seeds. God did the rest. 


Just as God took the children’s efforts and made flowers grow in improbable places, so does He take our good works, both significant and humble, and use them for His purposes. 


With His infinite power, God could heal all diseases, wipe out hunger, provide shelter for the homeless, and make the lonely and lowly feel loved without any input from us. Instead of doing all this on His own, though, He lets us have some ownership in it: He accepts what we humbly and lovingly offer for others. Then He multiplies the benefits and uses it to build His Kingdom. 


We may doubt that we have the necessary skills to make a difference. We may not understand why the need is so great. We may question why God allows so many people to suffer. Yet in the midst of all those unanswerable questions, if we’re willing to work with Him, He’ll take our efforts and use them in ways we could never do on our own.


Listen to what our Lord may be saying to you today:


“What I ask you to do, you may not understand. Trust Me.


You may think you’re incapable of doing big things. Trust Me.


You may think your contributions are insignificant. Trust Me.


I will meet you in the eyes of the poor, the outcast, the forgotten. Offer your hand to them and you’ll grasp Mine. Trust Me.


I will take what you do and turn it into something eternally valuable – even if you don’t see it. Ask Me.


I will strengthen you to go out of your comfort zone. Ask Me.


I will give you courage when you need it. Ask Me.


Like a gardener who plants flower seeds and trusts Me to make them bloom, trust Me to take your seeds of faith and loving works, no matter how small, and use them for My Kingdom.”


Pay attention when God tugs at your heart to reach out to someone in need. You don’t have to have all the answers, just a desire to let Him use what you offer.


“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God: it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.” – Mark 4:26-27


Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.



Thank you for reading my reflection!  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words.    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 


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P.S.

Pray for peace at home, in Ukraine, Russia, the Middle East, and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.


Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Make Room for Flowers

 Don’t you love seeing the beautiful variety of flowers in people’s yards, and wildflowers popping up everywhere? The landscape is bursting with color!

A vase full of rocks has no room for flowers. A heart full of rocks has no room for peace.

I like rocks, and love finding ones with fun shapes. But rocks don’t belong in a vase, and I try to keep them out of my heart.  What ‘rocks’ do we sometimes feel in our hearts? Things like hatred, greed, resentment, envy, and pride.

I’ll share with you a situation when God, in His immense goodness, removed from my heart the rock of pride. I had had an encounter with someone who offended me -- something we’ve all experienced. I felt hurt, and the problem grew not so much from their actions to me as from my recounting the incident over and over in my mind and nursing my bruised ego. As time went on, though, I realized that focusing on myself was dragging me down. I wanted God’s peace; I wanted to acknowledge the hurt, learn from it, and let it go. I knew that, since God had forgiven me (countless times) for offending others, I had to forgive those who offended me, and I couldn’t do this without His help. As all these thoughts swirled in my mind, I came upon this verse:

“All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.”—Ephesians 4:31-32

Boy, did that hit home. So I sat down and prayed: first, for the grace to let go of this grudge, and then for His blessings on the other person. Finally, I asked God to take away the rock in my heart and clear the way for His peace. I pictured myself picking up the rock, lifting it up to God and saying, “Here! Take this!”   

And God, in His infinite grace, freed me! The tightness in my chest loosened and the bitter feelings left me. I still had the intellectual knowledge of what had transpired, but the rock of pride was gone and the flower of peace took its place. You must understand that this was God’s doing, not mine! I then offered prayers of thanksgiving and asked Him for the strength to resist this sin in the future. Be assured that He can and will remove the rocks in our hearts over and over again if we trust in His goodness!

“Praise be to God, 

who has not rejected my prayer

  or withheld his love from me!--Psalm 66:20

 

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A New Start

 Hi! You may now read my reflections by going to fanintoflame.substack.com. I will continue to write uplifting reflections based on the Scri...