The Space

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope & trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious, soggy, Friday begins to dawn on the Texas Gulf Coast! :)

This week I want to share a couple of thoughts/challenges with you. A few weeks ago my sweet sister, Tammy, sent me a text encouraging me to listen to the sermon that the Pastor at her church had preached. I did listen to that sermon, and the next one! This Happy Friday is based on that 2nd sermon.

The Pastor is Waylon Sears, and he is the Lead Pastor at Victory Worship Center in Tucson, AZ. He is currently preaching a sermon series titled, King Me: Lessons From The Rise, Fall and Triumph Of A King. The sermon I am referring to is titled, "King of Encouragement." You can find listen to the sermons at vwcaz.org.

Pastor Waylon started off the sermon speaking about the fact that we all face discouragement and get discouraged. That is a part of life, a part of being human. As Pastor Waylon noted, all of us are either in a storm, coming out of a storm or getting ready to go through one...it's just a part of the honor & privilege of being on this journey called life. The question is not whether or not the storms of nature and/or life will come; the question is what will we do with them?

Pastor Waylon threw out a statement that I thought was profound - not really sure where it fits in all of this so I will put it here...the luxury of being the one writing Happy Friday!!! :) He said, "If we focus on our circumstances, we will become fearful." So the question is, where will you get your encouragement? Or, what will encourage you? Discouragement strikes us all. Some look for encouragement in people - flawed just like you and me, alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc. Sadly, these paths often lead to death and destruction of spirit, mind, body and/or family. But there is another option for us. Let me briefly share a part of 3 separate translations of 1 Samuel 30:6:
- "but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." (KJV)
- "but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God." (ESV)
- "but David found strength in the Lord his God." (NLT)

So the question Sweet Friends, is how are YOU, and I, encouraging, strengthening and finding our strength? It is a choice we have to make, will make, and the consequences of those choices do, in fact, have eternal consequences.

The second part that I want to share with you this morning is what Pastor Waylon referred to as "the space." The space is that season of time between when we feel we have heard God tell us something, we feel a conviction of something in our Spirit and the season when that hope or dream that was planted in our hearts comes to fruition. Ever been there? You know in your heart of hearts that you are supposed to do something, you step out in faith according to this conviction and then...crickets! Nothing seems to be happening. You start questioning yourself and, perhaps, God. You get mad, angry, frustrated. Ever been there? I know I have.

And then Pastor Waylon gave a perfect, beautiful illustration. Would you go out today, plant an apple seed and then go out tomorrow and pull lush apples from a fully matured tree? Would you expect to do so? Of course not! That would be foolish. So why do we expect the seeds planted within the deepest recesses of our hearts to bear fruit instantly. As Pastor Waylon said, it is easy to understand in terms of agriculture, very hard to walk out in life.

Just as the seed planted in the ground has to be watered, fertilized and nurtured to grow to become all it was created to become, so do you and I. The things we are going through after we have the seed planted in our hearts are the water and fertilizer we need to grow to become all that we were created to become. For days, weeks, months, and even years, it can seem like nothing is happening and yet the seed buried in the heart is germinating...if only we will allow it to do so.

And, Pastor Waylon made another great point; have you ever noticed whether you plant grass in your yard or put in rocks, weeds always grow. Always! Why?! You don't have to plant and nurture them, they just show up! Just like we have to pull weeds from our yards - at least those of us who want our yards to look nice do!!! :) - we have to pull the weeds that try to crowd the harvest of our hearts. The weeds of the heart are discouragement, worry, regret, fear, and the like. While you don't have to intentionally plant them, they will show up. If we don't get rid of them, they will choke out the beautiful seed that has been planted.

So, the 2nd question/challenge, is what are you doing with the space? Are you growing and maturing so you can be the fruitful tree that you were created to be? Are you growing your faith, or your fears? Absolutely not easy; absolutely essential to produce your beautiful fruit!

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your precious family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families!

Kev