Many years ago, I had a wild idea to start a vegetable garden in the backyard. It lasted all of a month. Some of you have flourishing gardens, and I applaud you. Some of you don’t even need to go to the grocery store because your backyard contains all you need to eat healthy the entire year.
The problem with my garden is that I wanted instant results. I did not enjoy the process of watering and waiting. Too much watering and way too much waiting. I gave up before the first cucumber broke through and turned to Oreos for instant gratification. I based all of my hope on what only my physical eyes could see. That became such a limited view because I could not look underground to see all of the workings happening beneath the soil. So I had no way of knowing that something could break through at any moment and bring life to the dream/vision I had.
What are you on the verge of quitting because you cannot yet see it? What are you doing now that used to bring you excitement with the hope of what it would be, but now you have decided you will take control and move on to the next best thing?
Dharius Daniels said, “Just because you are tired of IT does not mean God is through with IT.” Are you willing to be bored doing something over and over again BEFORE you see the fruit of your work? If not, you may be driven by your feelings instead of faithfulness. Feelings change by the minute. However, if you are FAITHFUL in what you are called to do, you will stick to it when your feelings wane. When the weather gets cloudy and the storms come in, you will stay faithful even to sheer boredom, knowing that “in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Practically speaking, how can we apply this? Ask yourself, What is one thing today that I have been watering daily yet have lost hope for because I am ONLY looking at what it is today? After you identify that thing, you were planning on prematurely giving up on, take a photo, a video, or a screenshot on your phone, or write boldly on a sheet of paper the promise God gave you of what it could and would be.
And every day, as you faithfully repeat the action required to make that thing grow, keep your eyes focused on the promise without looking to the right or the left. Looking at a garden with only dirt can be quite discouraging. That discouragement will serve only to detour your faithfulness. Despair soon sets in, and before you know it, you have lost the will or desire to continue with the dream that once was alive within you.
Do not stop watering what you know God placed inside of you.
You have no idea how close you may be.
Stay fervently faithful to that dream.
And your work will be rewarded.
But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.
2 Chronicles 15:7
