John 12:24

John 12:24 — 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.
 
Growth takes planting seeds, but you can't plant a seed and keep it at the same time. You have to bury a seed to plant it. And then you may or might not see growth.

"Paul planted, Apollos watered, the Holy Spirit gave the grown."

On Sunday, I mentioned that Jacob led his family to bury their idols under a terebinth tree. In a way, burying those idols was planting seeds of faith. It isn't the idols that will bear fruit but the sacrifice of the idols that will bear fruit.

This can look differently for all of us, but the most common idol that we can all probably relate to is sacrificing or burying dreams and goals. Sometimes it's good to pursue our dreams, but other times it's wiser to acknowledge our limitations, whether they be financial, temporal, familial, or whatever.

Instead of being ensnared to those dreams and limitations, we can give them over to God. Bury them under the tree. Plant the seeds of faith.

In some cases, God will redeem the dream that you've sacrificed. Other times, He'll give you something greater. Some other times, it may seem simply lost. But we'll never regret planting seeds of faith by burying our idols. But it's only when that seed dies that growth will happen.

Look to God for the growth. Don't hold on too tightly to the things which aren't in your strength to control.

United in Christ,
Pastor Josh