Cultivating Faithfulness

I was recently challenged to think of a time that I felt God had spoken some specific word to me.  I instantly recalled that as we were getting ready to move to the property here, He graciously "gave" me Psalm 37:3-6:

"Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it.  And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday."
NAS

As I looked back over these verses, it occurred to me that though I can tell you off the top of my head how to cultivate carrots or cucumbers, I had to think a bit on how exactly one should go about cultivating faithfulness.   Further reflection showed me that the answer is in the rest of the passage.

"Delight yourself in the Lord"

 First, we delight in the Lord.   Think for a minute about what delights you?  For me it is my family, growing things, beautiful places in the great outdoors, to name a few.   When I am delighted with someone or something, I want to stay nearby, soaking it in, learning more.  To delight in the Lord , then would mean to spend time soaking up His presence: time in the word, time in worship, time just sitting silently in His presence so He can talk to me.  Continuing with the "cultivation" metaphor, I think of delight as the feeling I get on those first few warm spring days when I can finally dig in the garden and plant seeds, or when I bring home a new plant from the garden center and  nestle into just the right spot in the garden.  Delight is the "fun" part, and it is crucial because it is that delight that motivates us to cultivate in the first place, but there is more.

"Commit your way to the Lord"

If all I ever did in my vegetable or flower garden was to scratch a few seeds into the ground on a pretty April afternoon and forget about them, not much would grow.  To really grow a good crop of anything requires a commitment to weed, water, feed and protect. The word "vigilance" comes to my mind, and I think about how what was so fun and easy to plant can sometimes be so hard to actually grow.  It takes commitment to get out there in the heat of July and hoe corn or hill potatoes, or weed the flower beds.  It is easy to just give up and sit inside in AC.  Look around at most everyone's vegetable garden in August and you'll see that this a very common temptation.

 Recently I have been tempted to just "give up" in some areas of my life.   The growing season has been long and hot, and I feel as if the harvest is never going to come for these particular "crops".   I've been tempted to quit cultivating and let the weeds take it!  Thankfully, the Lord is faithful even when I am not, and He has sent others and His word to encourage me to hang in there and keep cultivating.  He assures me the harvest is coming, in His time, if I commit my way to Him. 

"Trust also in Him"

Ultimately though, whether we are talking about silver queen corn (my favorite) or spiritual blessings, it is God that gives the increase.  Having done all,  I need to trust Him with outcome.  I have been recently reminded of the truth that the harvest comes in His time, not mine.  Some things I have been praying over and "cultivating" for a long time may not bear fruit for years, maybe not in this lifetime.  Can I trust Him anyway, even when I don't see anything growing above ground?   The passage assures me that I can because "He will do it". 

And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday."




Ok, I am not completely sure what that means, but it sounds good.  It sounds like someday all our delighting and digging, our commitment and cultivation, they're going to pay off.   There are a few gardens around here that always make me slow down and stare--they are so beautiful or so bountiful or so well-tended that I am blessed just to see them.  I want my life to be like that: beautiful, bountiful, well- tended, a blessing.  Not for my own glory, but for God's and for the blessing of others. 

And so to that end, I will continue to "dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness."

One of the raised beds in our vegetable garden, early March.  In this photo, the first lettuce plants are just coming up.