My son has a heart to find wonder in even the smallest details of life! He asked me to take a picture of his slice of watermelon recently because the tiny seed pattern was very unique and he wanted to capture and preserve its specialness! This reminded me of a Truth found in chapter 17 of Isaiah.
Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you. You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you. So you may plant the finest grapevines and import the most expensive seedlings. They may sprout on the days you set them out; yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them, but you will never pick any grapes from them. Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain. Isaiah 17:10-11 (NLT)
This chapter holds such a bold call to turn from false allurements in this life and to rather trust God. In the above verses we get that people were falling to the trappings of success! They were planting with “the best of the best”, so they thought. However, whenever we “plant” without God it will always be less than what’s best.
Success is not measured in wealth, status, subscribers, likes, or even open doors of opportunity. Rather God measures success through obedience. None of us are called to be “successful” only obedient (see Philippians 2:3-11, especially verse 8). In this case found in Isaiah, expensive seeds weren’t the only thing being imported via their human efforts to succeed; false gods were also finding their way into hearts and homes!
The above verses in Isaiah indicate though things might’ve looked good on the surface there would be no real harvest in the end. How devastating. Sometimes the call to obedience is devastating too; it’s hard and not what we would naturally choose and YET God honors those who honor Him (1 Samuel 2:30).
Both Job (in 13:15) and Habakkuk (in 3:17-18) found themselves in situations they wouldn’t have chosen and their response is filled with the seed of faith you can read as the word “yet” in the verses listed above. How does one acquire a “yet” seed of faith that changes entire outlooks on situations and circumstances and produces harvest 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown!?! They choose trust in God. Like my son and his watermelon, you take up eyes that truly see the wondrous faithfulness of God who is ALWAYS working in every detail of life for the good of those who love Him even when you can’t understand, dear one. God bless you muchly~
Redeeming Grace 99|1 Ministries 