Day Fifteen Blossom
Sometimes I have no clue what I need to read when I sit down at night to read my bible before bed, so I use the ‘turn to any page method’ to randomly pick what to read in my bible. This evening I had told myself I would stop to read the first scripture that was attached to a devotional. I opened my bible to Isaiah 35, and read these empowering words of restoration.
Isaiah 35
1The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
3Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
A particular phrase I saw on book marks and motivational posters came to my mind after I read these verses, “Bloom where you are planted.” Oh how I want to be built up strong in the Lord’s power. I need him to take my weak hands and knees and renew their strength. I want to be protected from Satan as I begin to grow. I want to obtain the joy and gladness he speaks of so all my sorrow will flee away. To blossom means to flower, to grow and develop, to thrive. We were created to be ‘fruit bearing’ people, from the very beginning, in the garden, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful.
Genesis 1
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
The great prophet Ezekiel spoke of this kind of growth, and Matthew, Luke, and John recorded the words of Jesus telling the religious leaders the importance of bearing fruit to further the kingdom of God.
Ezekiel 17
1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
4He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
5He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
7There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
8It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
Matthew 13:23:
23But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Luke 13:18-1918Then said he, Unto what is the
19It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
John 15:1-11
1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
My prayer this morning is to embrace this concept of blossoming where God has placed me. I want to be a spring crocus, that waits patiently for its signal from God in the dirt during the cold harsh winter, laden with so much snow. Lying just beneath the surface of the earth, it feels the first rays of warmth from God’s love and it bursts forth with beautiful blossoms. The crocus blooms so early, it has no fear of the days ahead. It pokes its head out of the protective ground into a still cold world from the winter snow and storms. So bold this flower, so unafraid of what its short life will entail. It has no fear of the world; it just blooms where it is planted. It abides in the soil it was planted, grows strong roots that feed it during the harsh, cold winter, and then waits for its signal to bloom.
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