May doesn’t ask to come it just does with all its beauty! The flowers are popping up with all their different colors, and the trees, yes the trees! I love it when they start to get back their leaves. Nothing shouts more than a fresh start- a new beginning- than a tree that looked barren and dead throughout the winter, but now stands tall with all new leaves dancing in the wind!
Ah yes, the wind- we have had our share of it this spring, especially strong winds with the storms that have passed over us. Where I live now, we have many trees all around us. We have two trees one in the back yard and one in our front. One of the two that are in our back yard is huge, we’re talking sky scraper big. I noticed that in the storms that even though these trees are very tall, they know how to bend with the wind. They may loose a few limbs during the storm, but they themselves stay upright and strong after the storm. So it is with us, we go through storms that are so severe that if we are not anchored in Christ and if we do not know how to bend or be flexible; we will not survive the storms that come our way. God gives us dreams and the enemy gives us storms.
It is the desire of our adversary to destroy our dreams and often he will do it with something as simple as time. We have our marching orders and we are holding the dream our heavenly father gave us in our heart, then out we go, ready to tackle the world. However, as we look for that dream to happen, storms come and go in our lives. Again, those who are not anchored in Christ are not able to bend. Instead, they break in the midst of the storm and give up on the dream, doubting they heard from God to begin with. This ability to bend and not give up on our dream reminds me of something Pastor Johansson used to tell me, simply that we must HOLD on to the dream but RELEASE the timing. So many dreams end up shipwrecked on the shores of hopelessness, because it didn’t happen fast enough. We, like the trees, must know God gave the dream and we must let him bring it to pass in his timing.
In the book of Genesis, when Joseph was in the pit, then later in prison, he never gave up on the dream God gave him. He held on tight and bent with the storms that came his way until finally he went from the pit to prison to the palace! I encourage you today HOLD on to the dream and RELEASE the timing. Learn to bend in the storms and you will see God come through for you. His timing is always perfect. Another storm is coming and I must look out my window to watch the trees for I need to learn more of this technique of “bending”.
Still standing, Pastor Rick