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| A bee pollenating the dewberry blossom |
If you have always lived in the city, you may not know about
dewberries. They are related to
blackberries, but grow wild in most of the northern hemisphere, on a low,
trailing bramble, close to the ground, not on high arching canes like
blackberries. They have nasty thorns, so
you need to wear gloves when you pick the berries. The sweet dark purple, almost black, berries
are smaller than blackberries, and they appear for only a couple of weeks in
the spring. I remember picking
dewberries at my grandmother’s house in the country when I was just a little
girl. As a girl of no more than six
years old, I was not so concerned about the thorns or the wild nature of the
dewberry vines. All I knew was that they
were yummy and my grandmother made wonderful jelly from them.
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| Strawberry Harvest |
But now I have wild dewberries that have invaded my
strawberry beds. I am working to
eliminate the dewberries from my garden, getting rid of the good dewberries so that I have more room for the
best strawberries. At first I thought I
could have both dewberries and strawberries.
But I soon found that the dewberries take up a lot of space and produce
very few berries. In the same amount of
space, I could grow a lot more strawberries.
Dewberries are invasive and would eventually take over the entire
garden. Even though I love dewberries,
they are not the best use of my limited garden space.
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| Dewberry Vines |
What does God's Word have to say about prioritizing, choosing
God’s best for our lives?
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall
strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord (Psalm 27:14, King James
Version)!
David wrote this when he was being assaulted by his enemies,
not during peace time. When we are
battling any issue or challenge in our lives, or when we have an important
decision to make, we need to wait for God. Don’t try to get ahead of God. His timing is perfect.
While we are waiting, we should listen & learn. We need to wait with anticipation.
Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes (Psalm
119:5, King James Version)!
We should wait expecting to learn.
Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin
against You (Psalm 119:11, New King James Version)!
And we need to wait for God’s best.
The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of
coins of gold and silver (Psalm 119:72, New King James Version).
Yes, we should wait, but we need to be ready to get moving
when the time is right and when God has shown us where He wants us to go.
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| A large, out of control dewberry vine on the vacant lot next to our house |
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm
119:105, New King James Version.)
I waited for over sixteen years before I wrote my book about
choosing joy. I knew God wanted me to
write it, but I waited until my pastor’s sermon series convicted me to live
life at a higher level. But I still was
not a writer. I had no idea how to start,
even though I felt like He was telling me that I had waited long enough.
I am Your servant; Give me understanding, that I may know
Your testimonies. It is time for You to
act, O Lord (Psalm 119:125-126a, New King James Version).
Are you afraid of what God is telling you to do? What are you afraid of? Take a deep breath, and get to work!
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and
you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you
see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only
to be still (Exodus 14:13-14, New International Version).”
Just as in the Nike ads, “Just do it!” Take the first step,
let God do the rest.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me?
Tell the Israelites to move on (Exodus 14:15, New International Version).
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| My strawberry plants after removing the dewberries |
So, I sat down at the computer, asked Him to help me, and I
just started writing. Not trying to be a
writer, just telling my story. Each week
when I write this blog, I do the same thing.
I seldom know what I am going to write ahead of time, I just sit down,
trusting God, asking Him to help me and to teach me. It’s hard work. Sometimes, just sitting down, just being
obedient is the hardest work of all. But
hard work pays off in the long run. So,
when God gives you a job to do, whatever it is, work hard, using all He has
taught you.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker
who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy
2:15, New King James Version).
Work every day, and develop a pattern of work. If you ever get confused or get off track, go
back to square one & wait, listen, and then act. When I was writing my
book, I would sometimes get “writer’s block.”
I had to do the same thing, waiting for God’s direction.
Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10, American
Standard Version).
Get help, and listen to advice.
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they
succeed (Proverbs 15:22, New International Version).
When I was writing my book, I had a few trusted friends that
agreed to be test readers. One of them
recommended that I change the entire format of my book. I took her advice, and that is what I’ve had
the most positive feedback on. I had
another friend who was an English teacher.
She helped me with phrasing and making my study questions more
challenging. Without asking for help, my
book would not have been as good. But by
asking for help, I had to be vulnerable.
I had to be willing to admit that I needed help.
What is God asking you to do? Are you willing to change what you are doing
that may be perfectly good and acceptable in order to do what God wants you to
do? When we let Him produce fruit in our
lives, it will be the best fruit, rather than the acceptable fruit that we may
be producing without following His direction.
In a wealthy home there are dishes made of gold and silver
as well as some made from wood and clay. The expensive dishes are used for
guests, and the cheap ones are used in the kitchen or to put garbage in. If you
stay away from sin you will be like one of these dishes made of purest gold—the
very best in the house—so that Christ himself can use you for his highest
purposes (2 Timothy 2:20-21, The Living Bible).
Is your work like the strawberries or the dewberries; the
gold and silver utensils or the cheap ones?
As God’s children, He has promised to bless us with His riches in
glory. So let us never settle for
anything less than the best. Make your
work, whatever you do, the very best it can be, to bring glory to God.
Whatever you do, do it from the heart for the Lord and not
for people. You know that you will receive an inheritance as a reward. You
serve the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24, Common English Bible).
My prayer for you and for me this week is the same prayer
for excellence that Peter prayed for us (see 2 Peter 1:2-8):
May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the
rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord!
I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything
necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who
called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these things he has bestowed
on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was
promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the
worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. For this very reason, make
every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; to
knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance,
godliness; to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish
love. For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they
will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of
knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.
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