Gleanings From The Word

Tag: Perseverance

  • God Wastes Nothing

    God Wastes Nothing

    God wastes nothing. This looks like just a grey stump with a few turkey tail mushrooms on it. It is totally uninspiring and highly likely to be overlooked.

    Yet there is a lot going on.

    There are fungi spreading through the wood, slowly breaking it down and releasing nutrients back into the soil. Moss covers the surface, holding moisture and creating conditions that support a surprising variety of living things.

    Within the decaying wood, countless insects and other small creatures find food and shelter. Beetle larvae tunnel through softened wood, springtails and woodlice feed on decaying material, and spiders, centipedes, and predatory beetles hunt among the cracks and crevices. Much of this activity remains hidden from view, yet it forms a complex food web.

    Birds feast on the insects. Salamanders, frogs, mice and snakes may find refuge here. The decay feeds the earthworms under the soil.

    The stump serves as a miniature nursery for future growth. By retaining moisture and nutrients, it provides an ideal place for mosses, fungi, and eventually seedlings to become established. What appears to be the end of a tree’s story is part of a continuing cycle in which death supports new life and sustains an entire community of organisms.

    In God’s economy, there is no waste. Everything serves to bring Him glory.

    Even our suffering, tears and disappointment have a purpose. I think it was Tozer who said, “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”

    When we become aware that God is using everything to make us more Christlike, it can make us less anxious. Our struggles, in Christ, are not God’s condemnation (Romans 8:1). God is always for us (Romans 8:32). He designs all our circumstances for our everlasting good (Romans 8:28). Everything in my life can direct us to Christ. Indeed, it should.

    In those times of anxiety and stress, we can remember Paul’s words.

    I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance; in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundanceand suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Romans 12:13

    There is nothing we can’t endure, knowing that God wastes nothing. Jesus holds us fast and will use all our struggles for good.

    Praise His holy name

    Kevin 

    You might also like, “General revelation, why no one can say they didn’t know.”

    SUMMARY

    A seemingly lifeless grey stump teems with hidden activity — fungi, insects, birds, and seedlings — forming a complex, self-sustaining cycle that mirrors how God wastes nothing in our lives. Just as decay in nature serves new life, our struggles, anxieties, and disappointments are purposefully designed by God to conform us to Christ and work for our everlasting good.

    TAKEWAY

    God’s economy wastes nothing — what appears dead or purposeless in nature (and in our lives) is actively being used to sustain, nourish, and generate new life and growth. 

    Our suffering is not God’s condemnation but His design; He is always for us (Romans 8:1, 32) and orchestrates every circumstance for our everlasting good (Romans 8:28). 

    Contentment and freedom from anxiety are possible in any circumstance when we recognize, as Paul did, that Christ is our strength through both abundance and need (Philippians 4:12–13).

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  • Finding true Strength

    Finding true Strength

    There is a stereotype out there, particularly among non-Christian men, but even among men in the church. That thought is that Jesus was a weakling, a powerless wimp. He had no strength. “Gentle Jesus meek and mild,” “Little baby Jesus,” “Got himself killed before his ministry took off.”

    Somehow, being a Christian, especially a Christian man, makes a man weak, a wimp. Meekness is confused with weakness. Meekness is strength and power restrained and under control.

    Humility is confused with a lack of self-worth. Some say that putting the needs of others first is not what a “real man” would do. You must look out for number one! Yet, putting others first is exactly what the only perfect man who ever lived did,

    Jesus confronted the established religious authorities on their errors. He overturned the tables of the sellers and money changers in the temple and drove them out with a whip. He willingly allowed himself to be falsely convicted, abused, mocked, ridiculed, and killed for the sake of others. 

    He still had time to demonstrate the love of God to a hostile world and to both teach and live in humility. He chose to be born in a hick town in the middle of nowhere and live, minister, and die in a backwater country in a corner of the empire.

    Making our salvation possible was not the work of a wimp. We see such strength in some of his followers. Paul gave up a life as a well-regarded teacher brought up under the finest of rabbis, for a life of service to the true king. It was no easy road.

    Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,  in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11-23-28

    He went to his death for Christ. The history of the church is filled with people who gave everything for Jesus. Even the ordinary person in the pew pays some price for following Jesus.

    Wimps? Hardly. As cold as we might be? No. But we are all works in progress.

    Our strength is in Christ. There is no greater cause.

    Being a follower of Jesus is not for the faint of heart, but there is nothing that tops it. Nothing that comes close.

    Look at the truth and examine your heart. It isn’t strength that keeps you away, it’s foolish pride. Take the step of humility and accept Christ today.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    Standing Alone – Strength and Hope in Hard Times
    Every Member Is Necessary — 1 Corinthians 12
    Tribulation Produces Perseverance