June 23rd – Bloom Where You’re Planted

Taking It to Work:

There is an old saying, that we should, “bloom where we are planted.” Although not a direct quote from the Bible, I do believe the Bible supports the concept. In Jeremiah 29, where so many Israelites were exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon (a horrible situation if you stop to think about it), God tells them through the prophet Jeremiah that they are to make the best of their new surroundings, and in short, “bloom where they’re planted”. In 1st Corinthians 7, Paul gives a similar mandate. Whether we are slave or free, we are not to be concerned about it, but to answer the call on our lives wherever we find ourselves.

This is a powerful biblical mandate for this. God needs His people in every walk and situation of life. Whether you are a plumber’s helper in Portland, or a chief executive in a New York high-rise, if you are a follower of Jesus, just like a bloom on a fruit tree, you are to be a reflection of His light and an aroma of His goodness; because there are people around you who need to see that light and smell that goodness. You are there for a reason.

Like a fruit tree in the middle of pine forest, or like a rose among wild thistles and weeds, our faith and our life should stand out as one very attractive to others. And when they approach our blooms, whether we are trapped in a dead-end job, or high up on the corporate ladder, we need to be ready to reach out to those who show an interest in our faith, and what makes our life so different.

Be attentive to those watching; the Father may be drawing them to Jesus through the blooms on your tree, as His Word works in you, today.

Jer 29:4-7 (ESV) – “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

1Cor 7:20-24 (ESV) – Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.  So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

Eph 4:24 (ESV) – and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Jn 17:16 (ESV) – They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

1Pet 3:15 (ESV) – but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):

In the workplace there are many. You are of the many, but also the few, for as the flowering tree stands among those with none, it raises the eye of all who pass, for its beauty surpasses. In the gazing, the passerby is blessed, as the seed of its flower gives more of its kind. You are the flowering among those who do not. Your radiance gives life, bringing those to gaze on the reflection of My light within you. Now, what you must do that a tree cannot, is to reach out to those who gaze. Give to them the mighty light that lights your way. Many surround you as you work, too many for the time that I have given you, but not for one or for two. Those who gaze do not miss, for those My Father draws to My Spirit. Through you He whispers. Your life is full, but not completely. Reach to those drawn to your bloom; here the fruit is born of the flower. Take time for he who needs; give what I have given. Your work is a great gathering ground, a forest of shallow roots and sparse fruit. I have called you to them as I have called you to Me. Reach out to the one, that all will be reached.