How many times have you been discouraged?
How many times have you made a decision to strengthen your relationship with Jesus only to find yourself discouraged and at the verge of giving up?
You get discouraged because it seems as though your prayers aren’t being answered or it seems like God doesn’t hear you or He doesn’t speak to you, right? But thankfully, the Word of God has the answers we need.
Hebrews 11:6 NKJV – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
I want you to pay attention to the part of the verse that says
He is a rewarder
As you can see it is clearly telling us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him,
but the key is to: diligently seek Him.
Diligently means: purposefully, deliberately, carefully.
This is a process which becomes a lifestyle: Diligently seek God.
How many of you have planted something in your life? Maybe an apple or orange tree.
You didn’t put the seed in the ground one day and after two days you were drinking juice for breakfast from the oranges from that tree, right?
– No, it doesn’t happen like that, but eventually after a while you will be able to drink juice every morning from your oranges for a season. after that season passes, you’ll need to tend to that tree in order for it to give you fruit the following season and so on and so forth.
-The same principle applies in the kingdom of God. When you and I remain faithful to His word, eventually the seed of the word that was sown in our hearts will bear fruit. But it takes time. Look at this following verse:
Mark 4:26-29 NKJV – And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, [27] and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. [28] For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. [29] But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- There’s a process, we don’t know how it happens but it’s at work.
Last summer my 16-year-old teenage daughter planted some zucchini seeds. Every day she watered them and was careful that bugs didn’t get in to eat her seed. After some time the vines began to sprout, the flowers began to bloom, followed by the zucchini (fruit).
Every day my daughter took care of her crops and every day she would come, and she would tell me: “Mom, you should see how my zucchini grew from yesterday to today. It’s amazing how they grow from one day to the next.” When the zucchini was ready to be harvested, she would cut them and come home with the fruit from her seed. She cooked it, gave some to other families in the church and she rejoiced every time she saw how her seed produced fruit.
– How? We didn’t know how they grew; we didn’t know how the earth caused them to grow, but the fruit came in time and we enjoyed it to the fullest.
-This is how the seed of the Word works in us too.
Our heart is the ground in which the seed of the word is sown, the more we listen to the word, the more we water the seed, and we tend to it, the fruit will eventually come.
We tend to it or we take care of that seed sown in our hearts by avoiding corrupt words, doubt, unbelief and fear to enter our hearts or go out of our mouths. We must always speak the Word of God. Every season in our lives must be centered in the Word of God and His faithfulness.
So, everything in the Kingdom of God is seed, time and harvest. You must never give up on your faith just because the word doesn’t seem to be working. If you continue steadfast in your faith you WILL see the results. It’s a promise.
- Corinthians 3:6 NKJV – I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
You see? Here’s the process again. Seed, time and harvest.
God will bring the fruit of the seed sown in you. His Word is true.
Isaiah 55:11 NKJV So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Galatians 6:9 NKJV And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Now look at what these next verses are revealing to us:
Hebrews 4:14 NKJV Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Verse 15 is telling us that God understands our weaknesses, He knows what we’re going through, but He is also telling us that there’s a part we play in all this. We must hold fast to our confession, what confession? Our confession of faith, what we’re believing.
If we continue to walk by faith, we will continually see God’s faithfulness toward us because He has promised to fulfill His blessings to us. But there must be a commitment from our part to Him. We see that example in:
2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV – For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
If there’s no commitment from you toward God, then He won’t have anything to back you up with.
If there’s a commitment of faithfulness from you, God will back that up, support you, sustain you, and you’ll eventually see the fruit of that seed.
Therefore, refuse to give up. Refuse to allow the devil to control or dominate your God-given ability to walk on this earth as a child of God.
Don’t change your confession of faith no matter the circumstances, God is with you. He will help you. Fix your eyes on Him, the author and finisher of your faith. (Hebrews 12:2). You will see the fruit of your faith.