The Grace of Spiritual Growth

Often in my life, I have received visuals, quick little scenes in my mind that only last a second or two but bring great teachings for spiritual growth.  In one of those visuals, I was walking through quicksand up to my shoulders.  It was not horrible, nor hard; it was just slow moving and required a steady stride.  I knew, instinctively, this represented my spiritual growth.  Shortly after that, I had another visual—I was coming out of the quicksand—Jesus was holding my hand, helping me to step up and out onto a rock.  There He was in His beautiful, white robe, ever-so-gently assisting me.  Overwhelming!  The feeling I had in my heart from the second visual was that Jesus was pleased with my work toward my spiritual growth.  At the time, I had just come through a very difficult period in my life, a time when I was grieving and needed to forgive.  I realized that visual showed me that God had walked beside me during my difficult time and was now helping me up and out of those lessons.  Some years later, I read the following passage from the Bible, Psalm 40:1-2:

“I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.  He also brought me up and out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.”

This passage described exactly what I had experienced in my visual – once again, I was overwhelmed!  It has since become a prophetic verse for me.

Some years later, another visual came to me—a little plant growing out of rocks.  We’ve all seen a dandelion growing up through asphalt, a daisy creeping up through a crack in the sidewalk, or a full-grown tree, thriving through a bed of rocks.  Plants extend their roots toward a source of water; they also curve around to reach the sun’s rays.  What does that tell us?  The plant’s reason for being here is to grow!  This visual taught me: our reason for being here is to grow.  Some of us get tremendous nurturing and some grow amidst rocky soil.  Our growth is not only through nourishment for our physical bodies but through nourishment of our spiritual selves.  Even under the worst of conditions, God’s love comes through our hearts and souls; and like plants need water and sun, He feeds our souls even when we are downtrodden and lost.

He will find a way to teach us; He will find a way to give us messages of His Love—no matter how strongly we shut Him out.  He sheds His Light on our life even when we are filled with darkness.  He is the One who sets our foot upon a rock, brings us out of the miry clay, to receive His Light.  Grace.

Wishing you a beautiful Thanksgiving!

 

Zion National Park, Utah  8/2013