Harboring the Right Conditions

I continually remind myself about “harboring the right conditions for growth.” One of the ways I do this is by preaching this message in all areas of my life because this is vital to my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. Harboring the right conditions is essential to my health and well being because this process is ordained by God. The Bible doesn’t use this expression, but Scripture uses words like disciple, discipline, and discipleship to describe this principle and process.

Harboring the right conditions or discipleship speaks of a joint venture, a participation between man and God. One of the analogies of this in Scripture is the picture of a farmer. No farmer in his right mind would say, “I’m going to be in continual prayer so that the LORD will give me a bumper crop of corn this year” without the farmer going out to his field, preparing the soil, planting the seed, watering, fertilizing, and weeding the ground. Yet, I am sorry to say that I’ve met quite a few people who thought that all they had to do was pray.  They expected to reap what they did not sow and the results were disastrous.

On the other extreme, I know people who think that everything was a result of their efforts without the help of anyone else. This too is foolishness because we are all interdependent on something or somebody, and in more ways than we can imagine. In speaking of God’s role, the apostle Paul has this perspective, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow” (I Corinthians 3:6).

God makes it grow! We cannot make anything grow. We cannot add years to our lives, much less give life (Matthew 6:27, Luke 12:25). We have to do our part, but really, we are at the mercy of God. It is God that gives the increase, ask Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:28-37).

 This theme is repeated in Scripture, but lest we forget, Paul reminds us of our partnership with the LORD, “Let us not be weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). The Hebrew writer adds, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

 Harboring the right conditions for growth is hard. Sometimes it means doing nothing. Actually, I call it doing nothing. It’s really a discipline and Scripture calls this discipline, “waiting on the LORD.” Paul says it this way, “…having done all you can, stand” (Ephesians 6:13). Why? Because, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

 Ultimately, and fortunately, we are dependent on God for growth. Only a fool would think otherwise.