My Uncle Lester, who lived in Florida, was discouraged by the lack of fruit on his grapefruit tree. Someone told him he needed to whack the trunk of the tree a few times with a board.
Apparently, there is some truth to this unusual method of encouraging growth. One gardening expert says: "At times, the flowering hormone in the tree seems to get stuck and no flowers appear. Carefully persuade the tree to flower by shocking it. Hit the trunk . . . several times, [which will cause] small bruises in the bark." This advice may stimulate growth.
When trouble comes into our lives, we sometimes feel as if we’ve been hit broadside. We feel desperation and then we wonder, Why is this happening to me?
One possibility is that God is using a painful experience to get our attention. In Psalm 119:71, David wrote, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes." And Hebrews 12:11 says that chastening "yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
Is God using pain in your life to lovingly persuade you to change? The season of trouble may not be easy, but if we let ourselves be trained by it, new growth will result as we become more like His Son (Phil. 3:10).
We shrink from the purging and pruning,
Forgetting the Gardener knows
The deeper the cutting and paring
The richer the cluster that grows. —Anon.
Affliction for God’s people can be the pruning knife to prepare us for greater fruitfulness.
-Jon posting for Jono
5 comments:
Wow when I read this.. it was So Easily Applicable to my life since i've been through the "why does this happen to me?" phase before.. at least.. been asking myself "Why is this happening to me?"
God gives us trials and tribulations for us to overcome..and He wont give us anything that we cannot handle. with every trial and with every tribulation, there is always the lesson to be learned. Sometimes we don't get it and we learn that lesson the hard way...
Lately i feel that God is trying to tell me something.. He's trying to tell me to change something, to do something differently, or to stop something. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm starting to get the feeling i'm gonna be smacked in the head by it soon.. if i dont do it sooner than later. So i guess if i can ask for a prayer request that i be more open to what God has to say to me, and find out what God wants me to change before he starts "shocking" me.
Previous comment was by Jon
Cool, trials and tribulations = growth.
I am also in a state of facing different obstacles, but remember God will never give you a challenge that you can't overcome.
So rest assured and know that God is watching over you.
well certainly, God does not tempt us to do things or cause us pain. He gives us strength to get through our tribulations and trials. The devil is the one who causes us pain and we may fall. But he may knock us and hit us all he wants but with God he is the one who keeps us standing.
-in class and doing this devo
-kim
In every persons life there comes a time where a obstacle gets right in front of us. At first most people would ask "why is this happening to me?" or something along those lines, it not until later when they finally choose to look back that they discover they actually grew stronger. Well this happened to me before.
I thank God for giving me those troubles and challenges, because through them he teaches me something very important and develops me into a man (or person) he wants me to be.
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