Today I woke up and was troubled and feeling anxious. I got up very early and would normally maybe turn on Sports Center to divert me from my thoughts till my normal time to wake up. Today I opened my Bible and read in Isaiah this verse:
Is. 6:13
..but as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel's stump will be a seed.
What is a stump? It's what's left when a tree gets cut down. I began to think about the things in my life that I have felt like were cut down. Do you have anything in your life that resembles a stump? A marriage cut short, a job where you were terminated prematurely, a relationship that was ended before you were ready?
Stumps can become the seeds of what God wants to do in our lives. Just because you've had a "cutting down" in an area of life doesn't mean that there is ho hope. God sees your stumps as seeds. Where we tend to see what was, He sees what can be again. Virtually everyone I know has a stump somewhere in our lives. The greatness of our God is that a stump is not the end, but can be the beginning of something new, better and part of God's plan for our lives.
I travelled to Israel around 2000, and in the Garden of Gethsemane there was an olive orchard. One particular place had a stump of an old tree that had been cut down, but out of the side of it was a new growth. Samuel Doctorian, our guide, said that was a picture of me becoming pastor after my dad. God can make new life sprout out of a cut off stump. Be encouraged today. See your stumps as seeds, that's what God sees. I'm believing with you for new life. The best is yet to come.
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