Grow with Love (Week 3)

Before you go thinking I'm some crazy kook who "hears things", I was woken up at 5am when my 2 year old came into bed for snuggles and I couldn't go back to sleep so I was just praying, and talking to God. He speaks when we listen. I thought this 6 weeks of love was going to be fun stuff and lots of lovin' and who knows, maybe next week it will be more fun, but when I hear God speaking to me, I have to change up the plan. 

Growing with Love is doing what you know you need to do. . . first.

We all know it gets kinda repetitive in church when all the pastor says is read our Bible, pray, fast. We know the good things we should do but we rarely do what we should do. 

Paul talks about not doing the things he wants to do.

Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

 We know we need to give back to God the first of our money.

We know we need to pray by ourselves in quiet time each day,

and together as a church family.

We know we need to love God with ALL our hearts, ALL our souls, ALL our strength, ALL our minds then love our neighbor (Luke 10:27)

When we are faithfully doing those things first that's when we start seeing the miracles happen and the changes and the powerful hand of God moving.

Doing these things first does NOT make any logical sense in our human understanding. When God told us three years ago we were going to pay off $27,000 of college debt in one year, I thought that made no logical sense. My husband was out of work 30+ days that winter, but we faithfully gave God the first of our money in tithing and sure enough, faithfully paying it off with whatever money God provided, by the end of that year my debt was gone.

In this season of Love, we can grow in putting the important things first and loving others starts becoming more natural outflow of doing those things. When we get up at 5am to pray and be still, our whole day grows out of that place of stillness. When we're praying with our church family, the whole growth of the church comes out of that starting place of unity. 

We have to START somewhere, lay a foundation each day or with our church family if we actually want any fruit to grow. God says, "apart from Me we are a dead branch and we get tossed aside."
John 15:1-4 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I'm challenged to grow in the discipline of doing what I need to do first then trusting that out of that overflow will grow fruit of every kind. When I faithfully do the tasks of being a homemaker, slowly by the end of the day, I have a clean house to show for it. When I faithfully teach my kids good things and show them fun times, I have happy kids to show for it. 

DO the thing you know you need to do first then you'll start seeing the fruit.