Once planted, the small sprig rises to the sun, not in strength, but in obedience to its call. It draws from the soil, and finds stability in the same. The Light to which it gives obedience, in turn, gives nourishment unseen. Roots reach for what is known, but in obedience to the call of the sun gives true life. You too are My sprig. I call you to grow in My light, for in this only, is there life. Those who cling only to the earth will not live. Short are their days and their fruit barren. My life gives light to men, that the frailty of the sapling might become the oak of Lebanon, to build in strength as a shelter for the days to come. The work of your years will leave a fortress of faith if you reach daily for My light. Many will find shelter and refuge, and your teaching will be My own. The enemy will not penetrate your home, and the saplings within protected from the trampling of men. All this is given to My children, but the light must shine unhindered, and the shoot must lean for its greatest exposure. The shadow of sin leads to death, but those who dodge its shadow live in My light [and] will bear much fruit, and their strength will be unrivaled, casting mighty fear to weed and thistle that once sought to hinder My light. Be My mighty oak – it is the work of each hour.
Ezekiel 17:22-24 (ESV) – Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
Bottom Line: If we are followers of Jesus, we have far more potential than we realize. Sometimes we look at the ground we are planted in. Maybe it feels like bad soil, difficult home life, no-where work life, and we wonder how we will ever reach our potential for God. He reminds us today, that the work of our lives will bear fruit only as we reach for His light. A mighty tree barely uses any of the soil, but its massive limbs develop from the sun it absorbs on a daily basis; our growth will come the same way. Reach for His light everyday. Avoid the things that block His light at all costs, and your work will eventually bear the fruit of a mighty tree.
