Becoming a Well-Watered Woman in a Parched World – Day 6
Day six of Becoming a Well-Watered Woman (or man!) in a Parched World is here! Just to recap in case this is the first of this series I’ve been doing, this week-long study by Well-Watered Women is in the free Youversion Bible app, I’ve been discussing each day on my Instagram as well as here on my blog.
Today we’re talking about progress and growth, what it is, what it looks like and where we should be searching for our own personal progress and growth. Growth can be a really painful process. It’s hard work, it’s difficult work that requires us to really dig deep if we want to grow. No one knows our internal struggles, besides the Lord of course. But to the average Joe we see walking down the street has absolutely no idea what we’ve been through, what we’ve overcome, what it’s taken to get to where we are. They see a highlight reel, just like on social media, only getting a glimpse of the person who we are in that moment, not what it’s taken to get there. It’s hard! I get it! The growth that I feel I’ve made spiritually, emotionally, mentally, honestly, physically, has been a whole painful process.
This is also like gardening, just like our devo talks about today. The weeding, cultivating, tending, it’s in those less-than-glamorous, mundane moments. It’s tended daily in the small, often invisible acts of faithfulness and obedience. The devo says, “The point of being faithful is not to be placed on a pedestal but to magnify Christ, the perfect one. When we desire perfection for ourselves in order to be praised by others, we lose sight of knowing Jesus, who is perfect.”
The more we seek Christ, the more we look like him. This is a day by day process. It cannot happen overnight. I love that devo says this next line, “I often wish God would hurry up his sanctification work so I would no longer have to deal with besetting sins and self-centered desires. But God doesn’t work on my timetable, and he doesn’t work in the way I think he should. As long as we live on this earth, there will be a gap between the ideal and the real, the hoped-for and the happening right now.”
Amen, friend, amen. Sometimes I think God is misunderstood as a vending machine. We put in our dollar bill, punch in a few numbers, and out pops our Reese Cups and Root Beer, right? We go to church, we pray, we follow the commandments, so God pops out our every desire and want? Absolutely not! That is so far from the truth. Do not misunderstand me, God definitely takes care of his people, his children and those who love him. He provides for us, but in the ways he deems good, not what we deem good. He knows what we need, we do not.
I also love this next line, “Where we veer off course is when we look for help, healing and wholeness in the wrong places. We’re not static human beings. Whether we’re trying to or not, we change every day—for better or worse. By God’s extravagant grace, we can change to be more like Jesus. This transformation doesn’t happen quickly. It takes time; it takes every breath and the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.”
It’s going to take time friends. But what adds up are those daily choices to choose the Lord, choose to walk his path, choose to love those who you deem unlovable, choose to pray for those who you can’t stand. Those small acts of faithfulness add up. “And one day the garden plot of our lives will be fully transformed by the grace of God. But for now, the well-watered woman (or man) embraces the sometimes painful process of sanctification, knowing it’s the way to reflect the image of their maker.”
See you tomorrow for our last devo of the week!
