Friday Fight 197: Being Buried or Planted?

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF197.

Looking back over the last year, how many of us saw examples of chaos or confusion and immediately felt overwhelmed. Whatever we are dealing with has brought us to say phrases like "I'm done, "I quit," or even "This is too hard." We have all endured being smothered by the weight of what we carry and questioning how much more we can tolerate. If we are distracted by the chaos and frustration in our lives, we could be missing something God is doing.

Being Buried or Planted?

We all have stories of difficult seasons yet could never have imagined the beautiful ending because our circumstances blinded us at the time. As we reflect on these times, we understand the covering of God's mercy. Because of His mercy, we experience new things and changes we could never have envisioned. The blessing of His mercy brings new hope, renewed possibilities, and revived potential.

We get so distracted by the weight of whatever we think is destroying us that we fail to see the new possibilities. Being consumed by the chaotic circumstances, we miss where God is trying to plant us. He intends to use, grow, or remove us from a place that will prevent our growth. His mercy enables this change only after we acknowledge our weakness, which many perceive as being buried instead of planted. Being buried is like being trapped under the weight of our circumstances, feeling suffocated and unable to move. Being planted is like being placed in fertile soil where we can thrive. Until we recognize our doubts and trust His plan, we remain in this lonely place of feeling buried instead of experiencing a new birth.

John 12:24 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." New things are possible when we allow God to produce in us what is needed to glorify His kingdom. Taking the approach of being planted means in our death of self, we are reborn in Him. We can all parallel this in our lives when we are overwhelmed by our current situation. This mindset could leave us in a destructive cycle of endless outward blaming for the shortcomings in our lives. This cycle prevents us from serving God effectively because the fruit produced is not watered by grace but grown in excuses. God's fruit planted in us brings sprouts that emerge from the Holy Spirit, growing daily in His grace only to be fully ripened in the nourishing soils of repentance. We either acknowledge our weaknesses and allow God to use us in His strength or blame others, which produces nothing. Being planted means we can grow and bear fruit, like a tree that provides shade and nourishment to others.

Photo Credit: Abigail Tarburton

Pastor Shannon

River Church