This summer the apricot tree in our small backyard garden bore plentiful fruit. For a couple of weeks our family, friends, and neighbors enjoyed as much apricots as we wanted. Some of the other fruits and vegetables we have planted haven’t produced as well this season. Seeds are mysteriously remarkable because within their simple, plain appearance they contain all the makings of something beautiful and great. Similarly you are lovingly created in God’s image and have within you all that God designed you to to be. But you can’t become that on your own because your spirit is lifeless and separated from God. You must yield to the nurturing of God, the master gardener, to truly live and mature. Apart from him you remain a dead seed that doesn’t germinate and never reaches your divine potential.
Returning to God Requires Denial
Even though people were created by God to enjoy an incomparably glorious life united with him, becoming like him, and doing what he does, they choose not to. Ever since Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, chose to live for themselves rather than with God and for God, all people tend to do the same (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:23). Ironically, instead of leading to a more fulfilling life this only leads to spiritual death and destruction (Proverbs 14:12; Romans 6:23). Jesus, God the Son, became a man, died, and rose again to change that. Anyone who trusts and obeys Jesus can be saved from the deadly emptiness of living for themselves and experience abundant life with God now and forever. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to return to God except through him (John 14:6). Jesus taught that anyone who wants to know God and grow in him must deny themselves. Jesus not only taught this, but he modeled it. As a loving, obedient son he accomplished God’s will for him of saving the world by giving his innocent life as a ransom for you and all people. Like a seed you must die to your prideful, self-centered life in order to experience God’s better life and to become what you are meant to be in Jesus. Jesus this to his followers, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me” (John 12;24-26). Elsewhere he taught, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Luke 9:23-25). Jesus told Martha, whose brother Lazarus had just died, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25). As proof, he then miraculously raised Lazarus from the dead. To grow into all you are destined for in Jesus you should adopt the same heart attitude as the apostle Paul who wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Returning to God Requires Faith
Maturing from a seed into a thriving plant or tree requires faith. Jesus highlighted this in a couple of parables. The parable of the sower describes four types of soil which respond differently to the seed of truth regarding God and his kingdom. The hardened path rejects the truth. The rocky ground and thorny ground accept the truth but fail to become fruitful because of trouble, persecution, worry, and the deceitfulness of wealth. Only the good soil produces an abundant crop because it receives and applies the truth (Matthew 13:1-23). The parable of the prodigal son tells of a rebellious young man who demands his inheritance while his father is still alive and then leaves home. In hedonistic folly the man squanders his wealth and ends up working in the fields feeding a farmer’s pigs. He has sunk so low that he desires to feed on what the pigs are eating, but he doesn’t even get to do that. The man comes to his senses, returns to his father, and confesses his sin. His father who loves him and was watching for him, not only forgives him, but graciously restores him as a son (Luke 15:11-32). In these examples, the good soil and the repentant son benefit only by responding in faith. I encourage you to do the same. God will work with even the smallest amount of faith like a tiny mustard seed to humbly bring about great blessing. It’s a principle of life in his kingdom (Matthew 4:30-32, 17:14-21). He loves you. Every day he is calling you way from yourself and from the allurement of this world. God is expecting you and waiting for you, for he has much greater plans than you can imagine or achieve on your own. He is always ready to forgive you, restore you, and train you. He sees you not so much as what you are, but rather as what you are to become. As your greatest fan and most faithful shepherd he is always working to help you make that a reality. Don’t ignore or resist God. Return to him by faith. Place your hope, loyalty, trust, and obedience in him alone.
Returning to God Requires Humble Reliance
Faith is not trying harder, but trusting better. You don’t achieve faith in your own strength. Rather you grow in faith by humbly recognizing, yielding, and taking comfort in the fact that God is the one who is the author and perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6). He is the one who restores you and empowers you to grow as you rely on him. Jesus explained this through an agrarian metaphor. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:1-8). Notice that like a branch you can’t do anything of lasting value on your own. Instead you are only able to bear fruit and bring God glory through humble reliance by yielding to the care of God, the gardener, and drawing your life from Jesus, the vine.
Jesus Returned to God in Preparation for You
Not only has Jesus died and rose again, paying the penalty for your sin so you can be reconciled with God, but he has also ascended back to heaven to prepare a place for those who trust and obey him (John 14:2-3). Soon he will return to earth to consummate his kingdom, gathering his believers to be with him as a bridegroom takes a bride (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-7, 21:1-4). A couple of days ago I was reading in Psalm 126 and it foretells of this glorious day. The context is Israel returning to God and the land he gave them after 70 years of Babylonian exile. In Babylon they were stagnant, tearful captives because they had rejected God and lived for themselves. As they learned the three things I mentioned above: to deny themselves, to live by faith in God, and to humbly rely on God then they were delivered and progressed toward all God had planned for them. The psalmist puts it this way, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6). Although God disciplined Israel through exile, his goal was to restore them to himself. He told his prophet, Jeremiah, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you [Israel], says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:11-12). Are you captive, sowing seeds of tears? Do you want to reap a harvest of joy? God desires to deliver you. Turn away from yourself and this world and return to him through faith. Like Israel, he will restore you to new life now, and to eternal blessing with him and all believers at the end of this age. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This maturing process in each believer will continue until Jesus returns. When he does he will complete his work in believers, in Israel, and in all of creation. In Jesus’ revelation to the apostle John of this future day he says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.'” (Revelation 19:3-5).
Conclusion
You were made for more than this world offers. Don’t settle for less. When things are going well; turn to God with thanksgiving and a desire to share his blessings with others. When you find yourself stuck in sin turn to God for forgiveness and restoration. When you are attacked with worry, frustration, depression, difficulty or suffering don’t try to solve it in your own strength; turn to God for respite, perseverance, and power. When you are wondering what to do to make a difference; turn to God for wisdom and courage. Let God grow you into all you were designed to become. Then as you develop into that, show others how they too are seeds with divine potential. Like you they can be restored, become complete, and be fulfilled by returning to God, the master gardener.