My last blog post was about making the most of our season of cultivation and understanding the critical play it has on our blooming and producing. I mentioned that I had a goal last year to study the fruit of the spirit. Well, I am finally getting around to that. What better attribute to start with than love? Shoutout to God for perfectly aligning this inspiration with Valentine’s Day.

The reference: 1 John 4: 7-21

You can take a minute to read it if you want (or you can just read my rundown).

The Rundown

We should love others because God loved us. He expressed that love by sending His son into the world so that we could live forever. Our love for each other allows us show God to that person. We are given the Holy Spirit as verification that we walk by faith and Christ is in us. The more Christians walk out their faith, the more our love looks like God’s love. As we continue to walk by faith and show love, we have more confidence to face God at judgment day.

My Thoughts

You might be thinking, so wait, God saved me and now I have to sacrifice myself for everyone else? Precisely! Love is a fruit of the spirit and the spirit the proof of our devotion to Christ and the benefits that we received through him because of his death. So when we accept Jesus as the son of God (who is love) - love takes residence in our hearts. We receive a number of benefits when this happens (see Galatians 5:22-23). The evidence of those benefits is love.

Have you ever visited a friend’s home and every square foot of the space reflects their personality? Every room that you enter has something in it that makes you say “Oh, that’s so you”. That’s what it’s like when we’re filled with Christ and we let love take residence in our hearts. We should live as if love is within us. Every square inch of our lives should reflect Christ and His love. When we encounter others, they should be taken aback by the way we treat them and everyone around us.

Take a Step Back...

How does it make you feel to know that love is evidence of your spiritual benefits?

Think about the ways can you show love to others in your daily life?

Love causes us to show compassion for the non-believer. It enables us to encourage our fellow believers to continue to fight for the faith. It disarms hatred. And it makes zero sense to anyone who has never experienced it. That’s why it is so important that we show it off in every aspect of our lives. Every corner of your life should reflect this love, so whenever you invite someone into your space they’ll think, “Oh, that’s so God”.

My Prayer

Dear Lord - I thank you for whoever is reading this. Thank you for the gift of your love. I pray that you would give us the boldness to love like you do. I pray that you would reveal the areas of our lives where we need to show less of us and more of you. My hope is that our lives would so unapologetically represent who you are, that your presence in our lives would be undeniable. Give us humble hearts to submit to your will for our lives. Amen.

Yep, I said it.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote by now “One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” I have to disagree with this statement. We typically use it as an anchor during tough, or stagnant times. I think it’s equally important to recognize that we could very well be going through our season of cultivation, which does not necessarily equate to flourishing or blooming.

I’m a words person, so I tend to look at definitions and origins to help me understand how to use my words to speak to myself and others. We’ll look at two words: Cultivate and Bloom

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BLOOM

/bloom/

To produce flowers

CULTIVATE

/’kelte,vat/

To prepare and use land for gardening

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“We must cultivate, or prepare, before we can claim that we are blooming.”

— ANISA NAOMI

You’ll notice that when something is blooming, or in bloom - it is in a state of production. Meaning, that there is something to show for that particular stage of the process. Often times we try to tell ourselves that we are blooming when we are NOT seeing results. We are recognizing that to flourish and produce something of high quality, we must go through a process. However, our steps might be out of order. We must cultivate, or prepare, before we can claim that we are blooming.

I’ll use myself for an example. At the top of this year, i would have told you that 2018 was going to be my fruit bearing season. After 3, 6, now 10 months into this year,  I would say that I have not produced any fruit. From the outside looking in, it feels as if I have been spiritually stagnant. I set out to study each of the fruit of the spirit and put together a practical plan to bear each one of these respective fruit. Let’s just say that I am far from this goal.

This year has been a true test of the foundation of my faith. The Holy Spirit has tilled my soul. He has broken up my spiritual soil to reveal a fresh heart, ready and willing to receive the seeds of the fruit of the spirit. There were times where I felt inadequate, incapable and unworthy to be responsible for the blessings that God was sending my way. I wanted more than anything to run from them and leave the responsibility to someone older or more experienced. But I stayed. And I prayed.

I prayed that God would give me the humble confidence to rely on the holy spirit to carry me through this season of my life. And during this time I was telling myself that I was blooming and that one day I would look up and I would be flourishing. As if a garden goes from being completely barren to being filled with thriving flowers. No. That’s not how it works. So I’ve accepted the fact that 2018 was a year of preparation. I’ve accepted that 2019 very well might be the same and that I’m not in control of when I bloom. But what I do know is this, that when I blossom - it will be overtly evident to anyone that I come in contact with, that the spirit is in full bloom within my soul.

MY PRAYER FOR YOU…

My prayer for you is this, that you would recognize when the holy spirit is preparing you for your season of bloom. I pray that you will accept the cultivation as a necessary part of the process. I pray that you are reminded that God is always working on you and he has you exactly where he needs you in order to impact his kingdom the way that he created you to. Don’t run from the blessings he sends your way because you lack the credentials or the know-how. Be humbly confident in the power of the holy spirit and trust that where you are incapable, he is capable beyond measure.

Yours in progress,

Anisa Naomi