Two years ago my parents gave me some Iris bulbs to plant in an empty patch between some Boxwood bushes at the front of the house. I planted them in the fall, gave them water, frequently made sure no critters had disturbed them, and waited until spring for them to start pushing their green shoots up through the soil. Sure enough they did. The green shoots became sturdy leaves and grew up to a little more than 12 inches tall. I was hopeful and excited that soon the colorful Iris blooms would appear. But as the summer months passed, no stems grew upward on which the blooms would appear. All I had was a bunch of tall green leaves between the Boxwoods. No variety of color to brighten up our front lawn. So I asked my parents how much longer I should wait. They told me that some flower bulbs won’t bloom the first year they are planted. Bulbs use the first year to get their roots grounded and to store nutrients and to become mature enough to produce their flowers the second summer. While I was disappointed this past year, I still have hope that this summer I will see the fruit of the Iris bulbs in the form of white and purple and pink blossoms among the tall green leaves.
We can have the same hopeful expectation for our spiritual growth and maturity as well. Some of you may be disappointed at the slow progress of spiritual fruit in your life. But as Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was confident that God “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). What an encouragement to us as well, for God doesn’t change. God will bring us to spiritual maturity, too.
God is the faithful gardener. But what we often expect is that our dedication, our investment of time, our checklist of religious activity, would be growing in us the character of Christ. We can lose our joy in growing as a Christian because we expect fruit to appear too fast, or the sin to be conquered and the daily struggle is over, or we see another Christian who always seems to be several steps ahead of us in displaying Christlike character.
In your spiritual walk, if you are discouraged, disheartened, ready to throw in the towel, ready to say “this isn’t worth it” even though you’ve been praying and putting forth the effort to spiritually grow, you can find joy in your spiritual growth, even though it seems slow to you. Why? Because God’s going to finish what He started.
There is joy in spiritual growth because it is God’s work in us. As we are putting forth the effort to read God’s Word daily, to meditate on what it says, to surrender our will to God’s ways, to speak with God in prayer and listen to His voice, we are cultivating the soil in which God is growing us. All that time we spend in His Word is storing in us the nutrients of His will and ways. Little by little our values are changing, our minds and hearts are being transformed, we find ourselves responding differently to situations than we used to before we knew Jesus as our Lord and Savior. As we surrender to God’s pruning of useless and unnecessary activities and entertainments in our life, we are being shaped into the likeness of Jesus. And this is God’s good work in us.
God is not a God of loose ends. He will complete what He has started in your life. We’re the ones who don’t finish what we start. We’re the ones who don’t follow thru, don’t keep the New Year’s resolutions, lose interest, and don’t want to put in the extra effort when it gets difficult. We’re the ones who fizzle out and who quit when it’s tough. But not our God and Savior. He’s faithful to His plan, and He’s faithful to His plan for maturing you into the image of His Son.
Our joy is taking delight in what God is doing in us all the time, even though we may not see it just yet. The fruit is growing. God is faithful to see that it does.
