Devotion on Blooming Where You Are Planted
Something that I want to share and use to encourage you all today are the 5 ways to bloom where you are planted. Oftentimes, we get so caught up in what we wish we were doing, or what we wish we were being used for, that we forget where God has us now. For me, I dream big and oftentimes forget to see what is right in front of me. God will put you where he wants you and it is your job to trust him and be present in where he has you. That being said, here are my 5 tips:
1. Embrace the Challenge:
– Challenges can cause fear, anxiety, and doubt but in Matthew 6:25-27 it says, 25
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”. God will never call you to something or put you in a place in which he has not equipped you for. God never fails.
2. Stop Complaining:
– When things get tough or out of our control, it is so easy to complain, blame others, and
dodge responsibility through excuses. Complaining does not help water the seed in which God is trying to produce fruit from. James 5:7-9 reads, “7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”
3. Focus on others:
– When things come crashing down, we often turn inwards to either blame ourselves or as
I had just said, complain. Instead, turn to your fellow Christ-followers/Community and most importantly turn to God. Proverbs 27:17 reads, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
4. Celebrate the small things:
– When life is getting hard and you are getting down on yourself, remember the good in
your life. We have so much to be thankful for. Hebrews 12:28-29 reads, “28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” He is also perfect, just, providing, forgiving, always for us, and He never fails.
5. Visualize the future:
– Failing is the opportunity to learn. When reflected on correctly, failures can be the
biggest blessings in disguise, luckily God never fails and we can lean on Him. God’s plan is also perfect and He has formed our future in his hands. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Do not keep returning to those mistakes (Proverbs 26:11-12 says, “11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more
hope for a fool than for them.”) but learn from those mistakes. Philippians 3:13-14 reads, “13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
The grass is not always greener on the other side. Oftentimes we can look at another option in our lives and abandon an opportunity that God has provided for us because we think that something else looks better. However, that is not always the case. The grass is greener on the side you plant and water it.
~ Joe Dunn
Youth Ministry Intern