Dead and Fruitless

As I was walking to the mail box today I noticed this...

Beautiful isn't it?? Ok, it's not really beautiful, but I feel like God gave me something beautiful as I looked at it.

First let me explain what this is. It's a picture of these flowers that bloom out by this ugly green box in our front yard. These flowers grow big and tall and at the end of summer leave a big stick looking thing to just ...well...die there. So all winter, these brown, tall, stick looking dead things just hang out in my yard.

We had an uncannily warm day on Monday and my husband went out and pulled up all the ugly, dead stick things to clean up the yard for Spring.

Today is Wednesday and as I was walking to the mail box I noticed that there is already green shoots of new life springing up. My thought was wow, that was quick, and I felt the Lord say, "See how quickly new life springs up when you remove what is dead and fruitless."

WOW...hello GOD! nice to talk to you today!!! I love it when God just drops an amazing God thought and perfect illustration into my heart, it just makes me happy.

Anyways. I got to thinking about that thought. "Look how quickly new life springs up when you remove what is dead and fruitless"!!!

I can think of so many people, myself included who spend SO-MUCH-TIME holding on to dead and fruitless things in their lives. Maybe that dead fruitless thing was once beautiful in your life, much like my flowers were last year. Maybe that thing has NEVER been fruitful and we've just wanted it to be fruitful, whew..I've been there.

We hold on, hoping, wishing, praying, working, trying, and waiting and waiting and waiting for something to bear fruit, to produce beauty or life into our lives. Often times we can't bare the thought of losing this thing. The empty hole that removing it will leave will be too painful. How will I fill that void? What if nothing ever grows back in that place? What if, what if, wait, wait, wish.

Sometimes, I think God is in heaven saying, "Why is it so hard for them to remove this thing? It's not giving life, it's not producing joy, it actually CAUSING pain. Don't they know I have something else that will be much better?"

Is it that we just don't fully trust that God has something better? Do we honestly believe in our hearts that it's safer to cling to this dead thing than to entrust the hole removing it will leave to our Father?

I don't know about you, but I want to be a person who is willing to slough off the old, dead, unfruitful things in my life to allow room for Jesus to fill those holes and produce new life.

The pain of letting that dead thing go is nothing in comparison to the joy of having life-giving things in your life.

Here's the thing though, I think sometimes we want to see the new thing, before we are comfortable sloughing off the old. It's sort of like saying, God when you show me that there WILL IN FACT BE new life, THEN I will let go of this dead thing, cause at least this dead thing is filling this hole for the time being. I'd rather it be filled with SOMETHING, even if it's dead.

But where is the faith in that? Where is the trust that God does have something that He is just waiting to fill that void with.

But just like those flowers, it's really tough for the new flowers to bloom until we've cleared out what was old.

It's hard ya'll, I'm not for a second trying to say that the "Clearing out" process is easy. It's not. There will be some pain, there will be some emptiness, If you're like me, there will probably be tears.(ha)

But just as Jeremiah 29:11 says, God has plans for YOU and ME, and His plans are always GOOD!! They are always for our benefit. You don't have to fear the things that God has in store for you.

I want to challenge you to reflect on any areas of your life that are dead and fruitless in your life? Is it an attitude or hobby that is not producing life? Is it a relationship that is taking advantage of you? Is it an addiction? Is it a job? Is it a boyfriend or girlfriend? Is it a dream you've had for your life that may not have been a GodDream and needs to be let go so that new GodDreams can come in? I don't know what it might be in your life. But I pray that you are brave enough to identify the areas that need to be uprooted so that GOD can plant new life for you.

When you are faced with the fear that the emptiness will be more than you can bare.
Just remember..

"Look how quickly new life springs up, when you remove what is dead and fruitless"

Be brave, my dear friends...God's plans are always good and full of LIFE!

xoxo

Dayna

DISCLAIMER- I am not referring to marriage relationships. If you are in a dead and fruitless marriage than you need to get counsel and help to rebuild and revive the marriage you have!!! God will breathe new life into your dry marriage if the right steps are taken to allow Him to do so. His desire is that the covenant relationship you have with your spouse would last a lifetime. :-)