We pray. He answers.

"God is our solution, our problem solver."

Build a bridge. Plant a tree. Build a tunnel.

THERE WAS THIS ILLUSTRATION I saw the other day. A stick figure man walked two different paths of life. In one, the path was level. He walked from point A to point B. This was labeled as our preference. In the other, the ground between the start and finish was uphill and riddled with obstacles. This was labeled God's plan.

In other words, God had placed the pitfalls and impassable mountains in our way.

I've puzzled over this because the God I know, my loving heavenly Father, sent His Son to die for me so that I can walk Path A. Not Path B.

It is the devil that digs holes and throws nails in them.

In the parable of the Sower. The enemy sent the birds to devour the Seed. Not God. The enemy placed the stones in the soil. The enemy turned up the heat. The enemy planted the thorns. God sowed the Seed there anyway.

Not to test the ground and see if it would manage to grow anything.

My grandfather was a farmer. He expected what he'd planted to grow, yes. But he tended the garden. He watered the seeds. He fertilized them and pulled weeds. The seeds had in them the ability to overcome. In each seed was life that could choke the thorns, could grow in spite of the rocks.

Because he cared for the soil.

We've had this idea God plants and sits down. No, He sent the Holy Spirit to earth to tend the soil. Our hearts are the soil, the ground He waters and watches over.

The ground isn't responsible for the birds flying toward it. And God doesn't send the birds. He does, however, shoo them away.

The ground isn't responsible for the stones lying in it. God's power in us crushes them. The ground cannot control the amount of sun. God’s presence overshadows us.

The ground isn't responsible for planting the thorns. Nor for pulling them up. At no point in time did my grandfather wait for the ground to eject the weeds. He pulled those that were too great in size. The seed overcame the others.

The Sower plants the Seed then keeps working in the garden.

Life isn't a straight line. It has ups and downs. We live in a world captivated by sin, enslaved to death and decay. The devil is continually at work to steal, kill, and destroy. And we sometimes are deceived by him and find ourselves where we didn't plan to be. Sometimes, the death at work on earth pushes us into places we didn't see coming.

And for these reasons, Jesus died and rose again. He came because He loved us and didn't want us to ever have to suffer. Settle this in your heart. IF IT IS EVIL, IT IS NOT GOD'S DOING. Our salvation delivers us from evil. Because He is our refuge, because we abide in His habitation, no evil can befall us. The Lord Himself preserves is from all evil.

Furthermore, in Him is no darkness at all.

What then are we to do when we find ourselves staring at a hole full of nails and it looks like there's no way around? Pray.

"Never worry about anything. Instead, in every situation let your petitions be made known to God through prayers and requests, with thanksgiving. Then God's peace, which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your hearts and minds in union with the Messiah Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7 ISV)

We pray and He answers. That’s the way prayer works. We pray. He hears us. He sends the wisdom and protection we need to overcome. And we pray not just for ourselves. We pray for others. Because we are not alone but united to a body of believers, of children with hearts full of the Seed. Many seeds.

The Sower does not plant the Seed only once and then give up. If the birds come and steal it, He plants more. If the plants wither and fade, He plants more. If the thorns choke the Word, then He speaks yet again, and this time, the seed takes hold. Because the good ground only became good ground when the seed in it overcame the obstacles.

When the chasm of life stares us in the face, we build a bridge through prayer. When the sun is too hot, we plant a prayer tree. When the thorns seem to crowd us, we make a prayer tunnel and the one trapped by life goes over, stands under, and walks through. God is our solution, our problem solver, not the problem itself. He triumphed over the devil then gave us His authority to carry out the sentence. The devil is defeated and under our feet. We have to keep him there.

Prayer works. God answers. In fact. He delights to answer. He loves to provide us with the bricks to build a wall. Us on one side, the enemy on the other, and between us the Holy Spirit to hold up our defense. He gives us the energy we need to stay up late one night and push through in prayer. He makes a way from here to there when we hold up our petitions in front of Him. And knowing He hears and answers, we offer thanksgiving and the peace that is His nature floods our soul.

We are waymakers for the Waymaker. One of us plants. One of us waters. God gives the increase. The growth of the Seed from a tiny seed to a tree which can provide shade and housing for any who come to it is because God’s everlasting, abundant life is in the seed to start with. And the rescue we need from the obstacles of life, whether happenstance or not, is not the responsibility of the soil.

The responsibility of the soil is to embrace the roots. When we pray, we protect the roots. When we read the Word, we cause it to grow. And time causes the plant formed from the seed to mature and bear fruit.

The Life is in the Seed. The Seed is in the soil. The Soil has the loving care of a gracious Father who will do anything to reveal who He is in the Harvest.

“The root does not draw sustenance from you, but you are nourished by the root.” (Romans 11:18 Remedy)

Photo by Cary Bates on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com