PERMANENCY HERE AND NOW!

The world has a distorted view of what it means to flourish and grow. According to the world’s definition, flourishing is in human achievements and growth is in popularity and prestige. If a person has more and more material prosperity, the world will consider him to be flourishing. But sadly the world doesn’t know that the material prosperity or popularity will never be permanent and will vanish as years go by. Ignorant of this truth, we see the people of the world take all efforts throughout their life time to expand in more material prosperity and grow in popularity, positions and prominence which are sure to disappear. But the righteous people have a permanency in their existence. They may not be materially rich and might not become prominent in this world. But they flourish spiritually which is a permanent state of affairs. They grow in faith, love, peace and grace which are divine attributes that they will never loose. In fact, they will flourish in all of these characteristics day by day because they are planted in the presence of the Lord. Their growth is aided by the resources of Heaven and so they keep growing. We find several Bible characters whose reputation has grown several folds since their time on the earth and are still growing. Patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job and Nehemiah are growing in the hearts and experiences of millions of God’s people throughout the last several millenniums. They occupy a great place in Heaven and no one can take these positions away from them. Their growth has been strong and long lasting like the palm trees and cedars for several generations to see.

Dear friend, are you growing in the Lord and His Word daily? It is most meaningful if you grow only as a righteous person. By being righteous does not mean that you become a faultless and perfect individual, but a forgiven sinner who is made righteous through the righteousness of God. When you confess your sins and failures before God, your sins and shortcomings are forgiven and you are declared a righteous person in and through Jesus Christ. As a person who has righteousness imparted into you life, you have the opportunity to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Holy God. But your spiritual growth while on earth is only a starting point of a process and you will grow into eternity and stand there like a strong and sturdy cedar of Lebanon forever. This privilege is available to all human beings provided they allow themselves to be replanted in the vineyard of the Lord in His presence. The act of replanting is the experience of being born again into the family of God. Thus when you become a child of God, you are given a permanency which moves from earth to heaven at the return of the Lord. But the choice is ours to decide whether we want to be planted in the vineyard of the Lord and enjoy permanency. We stand as a mark of the faithfulness of the Lord to us. We stand because He makes us permanent. We become strong and sturdy in His strength which He imparts in us. Our standing is His standing which He gives to us. There is no reason to believe that the palm trees and cedars of God would ever get uprooted and lost in the heat of the world. We will always enjoy the shade and coolness of the Lord to stand for Him as a mark of His faithfulness. This is the reason why the Bible says that we shall not want. The flourishing and growing trees of God are aided by the Lord and so we shall stand strong for the Lord. What a privilege it is to stand for the Lord in His presence as a testimony to His faithfulness!

Psalms 92:13 – Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

Thought for Today
It is the Lord who plants us and helps us to grow for His glory and to stand for Him forever.