In 2024, I don’t want to change a thing.
Said no-one EVER!
A new year generally rallies the brain troops together, to reflect on the year that’s just past as well as ponder and dream about the new year.
We can find ourselves asking questions:
What worked?
What didn’t?
Did we accomplish all we set out for the past year?
Where can we grow?
Can we schedule our time better between the Lord, work, relationships, personal growth, church and fitness?
Whichever way the past year went, in the new year change is inevitable. Growth, however, is optional, and yet extremely necessary.
I have almost no knowledge of garden things. Some might refer to it as not having green fingers. Genetically, I should’ve been born with the greenest of fingers and the Gardening 101 manual uploaded in my brain, but this apple did fall a bit too far from the mother tree and grandmother tree (who both can make roses grow in the desert).
We bought a small peach tree, planted it with minimal effort and instructions and hoped for the best. This thing has exploded in size and there have been some tiny peaches on it. What I have learned recently about fruit trees, is that they need to be trimmed down, no wait, axed down to almost nothing and often, so that the branches can thicken and strengthen in size as they grow. This will allow the fruit tree to be strong enough to carry beautifully big and juicy fruit. We were too eager and impatient to reap benefits of the peach tree ASAP, instead of allowing it the time and strength to carry the best fruit possible. Why settle for tiny fruit when we can have big juicy fruit?!
We have no idea what 2024 holds, but we do get to know the One Who holds it.
Therefore, let’s use the time we have, to strengthen the necessary branches, so that we can be strong for whatever is to come.
Psalms 92:12-14 NIV says: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,”
There are 4 things that needs to be done for us to carry big juicy fruit:
1) We need to be deeply rooted.
2) We need to be positioned correctly to catch the sun.
3) We need to be painfully pruned often.
4) We need to be watered often in Spring and Summer, so we can endure Autumn and Winter.
1) We need to be deeply rooted.
Colossians 2:6-7 NIV says: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Jesus is the only One we can and should be deeply rooted in. Only in Him can life truly flow.
This happens through spending time in His Word and with Him, in prayer.
It happens through total surrender of our lives and fully trusting Him, the journey and His ways.
2) We need to be positioned correctly to catch the sun/Son.
The way our house is situated, it gets insane morning sun and then some afternoon sun. Not the best for a tiny basil, but amazing when that tiny basil is in the shadow of a peach tree.
Worldly position can be a never-ending search for approval and stature and promotion. I believe God’s view of position is with others. If we only seek platform, we have some heart issues that need to be dealt with.
In Matthew 19:30 NIV Jesus said: “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
In Matthew 20:25-28 NIV: “Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
To be positioned correctly to catch the Son, is with others, alongside others. To be positioned correctly, is to also serve those around us. In His Kingdom, position cannot be a self-seeking act.
3) We need to be painfully pruned often.
Pruning does not take away from a fruit tree’s beauty, it enhances it. In the same way, pruning is not punishment for a Christian, but serves as a reward.
Jesus said in John 15:1-2 NIV: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
Pruning by the Father, enhances spiritual growth by removing those things that prevents us from growing.
Pruning is painful, because it removes things that were so part of us. Bad habits, bad attitudes and bad thoughts are as much part of us, as our arms and legs. Losing it, causes pain. But not losing it, can kill us the same way a gangrenous limb can.
Unless these things in our lives are cut away and dealt with, we cannot remain in the vine, in Jesus (John 15).
Let’s not be fearful of this loving pruning, but rather embrace it, trusting the Master Gardener knows exactly what His doing.
4) We need to be watered often in Spring and Summer, so we can endure Autumn and Winter.
Johannesburg’s climate is intense and probably the closest picture of our Christian walk. Winter is dry and harsh, topped with flu, and Spring to Summer is rainy season topped with allergies.
I recall that often in the past years, it takes a few weeks and lots of prayers for the rain to start, for the dryness to finally break and the grass and plants to sigh their relief.
(Sure, why don’t we just water everything ourselves? Well, in Johannesburg we also have water restrictions. Yup, pray for us brothers and sisters, living in Johannesburg is an extreme sport, like our Christian walk.)
In John 7:37-39 NIV Jesus said: “…Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive…”
In the Spring/Summer months, the good times in our lives, we need to continue to remain in Jesus. We need to build reservoirs filled with the Holy Spirit. This will help us through the Autumn/Winter, tougher months. This will help that living water of the Spirit can continue to flow and sustain us.
In 2024, I…want to bear much fruit, by remaining in Jesus (whatever it takes), be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, all for the Father’s glory.