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At first glance you might think I should have asked, “Can God make a bad situation good?” No, I didn’t make a mistake when I wrote the above title.
The reason I opted for the human angle is because if I had asked you whether or not God could right a wrong in your life, you as a Believer would inevitably tell me, “Well, of course! That’s why He is God.” End of discussion.
But when we put the burden back on ourselves, it’s a bit different, isn’t it? We have to make decisions. We have to take responsibility for our actions. We have to think differently about what we are going through. No couch-potato living here if we truly want to expand our faith and live for God.
I am not trying to be Oprah-esque here. Making a bad situation good isn’t like pulling from deep within your soul. I am not referring to mustering up some “power within.” I am not talking about tackling issues with brute force of mind over matter.
I am really talking about seeing your life differently. It’s that whole making lemonade from lemons that I am referring to, only in the less secular vain. Instead of spiraling down deeper into your problems, switch that focus to the ultimate Solution, God and your relationship with Him.
This sense came to me last night while watching Facing the Giants. If you haven’t seen the film by director Alex Kendrick of Sherwood Pictures you really should. Here is this failing coach who is probably going to get the boot because his football team, the Eagles, have been on a losing streak for six years. Coach Grant not only feels like a failure, his team sees him as a failure and his school sees him as a failure.
Can you make a bad situation good? Yes, if you choose to trust the Lord, because He will do it in and through you. Let the Holy Spirit breathe life into the yucky stuff you see and feel and know in your not-so-great day or not-so-great season of life.
Before we let our feelings get the best of us, let’s try to take every thought captive for the cause of Christ. Let’s nip the negativity in the bud before it blooms and takes over the garden of our minds and hearts. Let’s choose to place our circumstances in God’s capable hands and rest assured that He will do what we cannot do on our own.
— Laura J. Bagby
Several years ago, I was given a prophetic word from a pastor who headed a thriving Charismatic church in a large, East Coast city. What he spoke over my life resonated with my spirit, despite the oddity of the word picture he was painting. It was the first time I had ever been told that God wanted to use me as a pollinator—like a bee or hummingbird or butterfly in a field of brightly-colored flowers—to help inspire life.
Today, as I was hiking the craggy mountain path, now dotted by vibrant yellow wildflowers of spring, I began to think about that word again.
And God dropped several key points into my spirit that I believe might help you if you are called like me to be a catalyst for God to encourage, inspire, and empower those around you who are growing but need that extra push to activate their fruitfulness.
Pollinators are absolutely instrumental. This is the first key. Without them, lots of flowers would not get pollinated and would not bear fruit. Fruit is reliant on pollinators to do their job. You might think your gift of encouraging and bringing refreshment and inspiration into another person’s life is no big deal, or that everybody does it. But you are wrong. I am telling you, sometimes at those moments when you release God’s flow, you are just the lifeblood that person needs.
In order to do the job, pollinators must anticipate the season of fruitfulness. They must be ready and able to recognize the right time to get to work. Too early, and the work is a waste of time; too late, and the blossom has died and pollinating isn’t possible. There must be discernment of the correct window of time. Pollinators need to be alert for the coming harvest. If you are a pollinator in people’s lives, ask God to reveal when the skill sets, character, talents, maturity, attitudes are right in season. And then, don’t be afraid and don’t be lazy to be the catalyst!
You are going to be pollinating lots of flowers, not just one. It’s a season, not a one-day event. God will orchestrate it so you won’t just be speaking into one person’s life, but many. Be prepared. Seek God for wisdom and energy as you anticipate your next assignment.
Remember: you aren’t the only pollinator out there, so don’t get weary in that busy season when you are tasked many times to bring encouragement to many different people.Have you ever seen a flower garden in its peak? Bees and butterflies are all over those plants! One bee does not do all the work. There are no maverick pollinators in God’s plan. The work is done through the action of many bees with the same goal— releasing fruitfulness by dropping a morsel of truth and encouragement wherever those bees go.
God created a variety of different kinds of pollinators. God uses bees, birds, butterflies, and other insects to do the job. So, if you aren’t of the bee variety, it’s OK. Maybe you are more gentle like the hummingbird or more lighthearted like the butterfly. Perhaps you are even more hardworking like the bee. Whatever your personality and talent mix, God can use you in a unique way to deposit His life into other’s hearts. Don’t try to be a bee if you are a butterfly. Be yourself!
It’s not about you. Before you get a big head about being Mr. or Ms. Life Giver, just know that you couldn’t bring anything good and life-creating without your connection with Christ. It comes first from God and then to you. And it comes to you not for you, but so that it can get transmitted through you.
Flowers also have a responsibility. True, pollinators need to recognize when flowers are ready. But the flower has to likewise be receptive, open, and ready to be activated. So, once again, it’s not all up to the pollinator. You do your job of bringing encouragement, but if growth doesn’t happen as it should, know that the flower also has to take responsibility for some level of fruitfulness. It is not all up to you.
Bring the next level of life to what is already living. Don’t waste time on what is not growing. Pollinators don’t try to pollinate plants that are dead. If you have tried to bring life to someone who you thought God wanted you to encourage and there is no fruit in that person’s life after repeated attempts to minister, don’t despair. Leave it for the Lord to refresh that person. God is the one who brings life back from the dead. Pollinate living things, just as the bees and butterflies do. Pray for those who are enduring a dead season that God would breathe His life into them. And then perhaps He might use you or another pollinator to rekindle something.
Hope this helps you as you continue on in the work of the Lord. Be encouraged today. Keep doing what you are doing in faith. Keep blessing others as the Lord blesses you. And what you can’t do, God will do. He will finish the work.
– Laura J. Bagby
I hope that today was a glorious reminder of what Jesus has done for you today. I pray that you are reminded of God’s salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If things still look dead in your life, if you are barely hanging on, recall that God was able to bring life from death. He did it through His Son, Jesus. And He does it daily with each one of us who is trusting in Christ.
Our hope is resurrected because Jesus lives! And I don’t just mean in some grand scheme kind of way. I mean it personally, too. Because our Lord lives, we have access to the same power that raised the Savior back to life. And that means we live, too!
Did you know that you have eternal life right now if you profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior? It doesn’t happen when you get to heaven. You have full access to life and life abundantly right now.
I am grateful that though we sometimes walk through valleys, we go through hard places, we slip into pits, God comes to life us up and out. He is the Lifter of our Head. He is our confidence and strength. He is our Deliverer.
I don’t know about you, but I am not the most patient person. I like things to be moving, clicking. I like it when cars in front of me move fast and when things are going forward at work. I hate waiting, especially when waiting doesn’t look productive or when waiting means more than a few days. When waiting interrupts my neatly planned schedule or blocks some long-held dream, the ire rises in me.
When waiting drags on indefinitely and goals are placed on hold, when I wonder if things I have longed for will ever materialize, that’s when I find myself saying to God, Come on already! What gives? I am ready for my break. I am ready for my breakthrough. I am over the breakups and the breakdowns. What’s taking so long? You know I am all over that next plan you have for me, so bring it on!
But God isn’t impressed with my need for speed. He pulls up a chair and listens patiently. He just lets me beat the air. He lets me get it all out. And then He says with a certain firmness in His tone, Nope. It’s time you do the little stuff. Keep on keeping on. I know the beginning from the end. No worries. You just be faithful in the small stuff right now.
But God?!
Little things. Small beginnings. There is that verse in Zechariah 4:10 about not despising all of that. There is a reason that the word “despise” is clearly used. It’s because some of us hate the thought of doing the stuff that holds no glory. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever been so perplexed, depressed, frustrated that you can’t even stand to see your negative thoughts put down on paper?
So many thoughts have been swirling in my brain this month as I adjust to a new place and to often perplexing and sometimes unpleasant circumstances. And though writing has typically helped me in the past to plunk those difficult musings on paper as something tangible and therapeutic, lately scribbling anything about my pain and sorrow—even in a journal no one will read—has been something I have been avoiding at all costs.
Why is that? Why do I want to escape from my thoughts? Why do I run away from the pain? Why is it so hard sometimes to face the dross I see God pulling out of me?
Before I came to this season of wilderness, I was excited about change, excited about new, excited about great things God was going to do in and through me. But that was before the realization that change meant I would have to change—not my circumstances, not frustrating people around me, like the slow driver ahead or the thoughtless person in line at the grocery store. No, it meant I would have to change. Read the rest of this entry »
I have a friend out here in the Southwest who told me the secret to making it through the traffic lights in the city before they turn yellow.
She has learned to concentrate on the crosswalk signs. Here in the city, those crosswalk signs count down to zero. When the red number gets to three and she is almost at the intersection, she speeds up to make it through before the yellow light.
While seeing this demonstrated in an evening outing with her, I laughed as I rode shotgun, dubbing her technique “driving by number.”
I have since put her technique into practice and can proudly say that it really works! I would have never thought to look there had she not mentioned this secret to me.
Let’s universalize this lesson for a minute and apply it to our faith: Where we focus our energies will determine whether we sail through a litany of obstacles in our lives or get bogged down with delay after delay toward our future destination.
I know I can get tunnel vision on the road of my journey and completely not see the solution, because all I am focusing on our those traffic lights that are hindering my progress. If I could just avert my eyes to the solution—Jesus, or in our previous illustration, those crosswalks— then I would have a smoother ride.
Won’t you pray with me?
God, please take my blinders off so that I can see You in front of me at each intersection of my life. Let me be fully aware of Your signals along the way, beckoning me forward. And, God, if I need to ‘gun it’ to get through to the other side in Your timing, make me sensitive to that leading so that I don’t delay. Let me always see my life from Your perspective so that we can road trip through life together at the right speed. Help me to look beyond my circumstances to Your solutions.
In Jesus Christ’s name,
Amen.
— Laura J. Bagby
Did you know that ground that has been trampled on continuously over time takes both patience and passion to come alive again?
That concept was on a sign at the base of the trail I had just finished hiking out here in the desert valley. It was meant to spark a spirit of conservation among fellow park participants like me. But I saw it more in spiritual terms.
Do you feel like your life and your heart have been trampled on this year by unwelcome trespassers? Do you sense an erosion in your soul as people have ripped through the pathway to your spirit? Do you wonder when the broken ground in your life will be fruitful again—if ever?
I know I do, and I am guessing many of you do as well. Read the rest of this entry »
