Yesterday, while in my front yard, I noticed one of my new flowering plants was opening several of its buds and beginning to bloom more fully than the others. I was delighted because, although I was raised around those who are very good with plants, gardening is not my expertise.
I had planted four of these particular flowers in a row and the other three were surviving but not as healthy as the other. Then I noticed the ground had a low spot where the sprinkler congregated all the water keeping these plants from getting enough. In my brilliance (remember, I’m not a gardener), I thought I’ll soak the flower bed for a few minutes to give these other plants an extra drink.
But at 3:03am this morning, I suddenly remembered my watering! To say the flower bed was soaked is an understatement. And honestly, it was too dark to tell for sure, but I may have watered my neighbor’s yard and street as well.
But you know, it made me think about being soaked in the presence of God. Are we supposed to “drink in” a little each week at church or in our quiet time? Or can you get too much, soaking for hours?
Based on scripture, you and I are called to fruitfulness, and even a novice gardener like myself knows you can’t bear fruit in dry land. In fact, the Apostle Paul prayed for the church in Colosse with these words: “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10).
According to these verses, being fruitful is directly connected to knowledge. Paul prayed we (as the church) would “be filled with knowledge” –sounds like my flower bed. But then he tells us the result is a fruitful life pleasing to God.
And remember Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16).
Someone once said, "You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed."
I guess this is why fruitfulness is so important to God. Our lives are seeds, and individually we can be counted in the Kingdom. But when we soak in God’s Word, in prayer, or simply in His presence, we prepare ourselves for fruitfulness. In other words, our lives become a fruitful vine for others to partake of, inviting them to salvation and eternal life.
But if a seed falls in a dry place… All the potential is still held within the seed, but it’s fruitfulness is decreased dramatically.
I hope my plants survive the extreme soaking I put them through, but I am confident of this: it’s better to be soaked than left out to dry! And the same is true of us. Don’t wait to sit under the sprinkler at church only–find time today to get saturated in God. On your lunch break, driving in the car, tonight before bed, or early tomorrow morning–find that place where you can turn on your worship music, pray and read your Bible, soaking in the knowledge of His will and purpose for your life. This is pleasing to God!
