praise nurtures

The Lord gave me a wonderful picture a few months ago.  It was the picture of what we are suppose to do with a seed once it is planted.  You water it!  I was reminded of the parable of the seed sower, and I asked the Lord what seeds do you want me to sow?  He showed me that the seeds were witnesses of God's goodness.  They were the accounts of the wonderful work of Jesus Christ, and the showing of God's glory in the life of the believer.  When our lives are totally given over to God he gives us things to tell other people about.  He works miracles in our lives and makes things possible that to everyone in the world would seem impossible.  This is not a coincidence.  God does amazing things in our lives because he loves us and he wants us to tell people about it.  When we see the hand of the Lord working on the behalf of his people what we witness is a seed.  When we water that seed with praise and thanksgiving that seed begins to grow into something that is visible to others and beautiful.  Some seeds grow into grass to nourish other things in our lives. Others grow into flowers that show the beauty of the lord, and others grow into trees that bear fruit in the life of the believer.  When we receive something from the Lord or see something that the Lord is doing we need to water that seed with praise and thanksgiving because God is not done yet.  He has simply planted a seed in us.  There is much more that God wants to do with our witness.  Praise and worship nurtures what God is growing in our lives, and sometimes is we care for what God has shown us well enough we may get more than what we expected.  Instead of a single flower we may get a whole field of flowers, or instead of grass we may get a field of wheat.  You never know what amazing things God has in store for us if we were just to open our hearts to him in praise and worship and thanksgiving.  God loves our praise.  He loves it when we take notice of what he is doing in the lives of his people.  God is glorified and he in turn lifts us up and pulls us in closer to him.  That is what I want for my life.  I want to be so close to God that you can't see where I end and he begins. I want for people to see Christ when they look at me and reach for him. 

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