Reaching for the mug, it caught my eye, the newest addition to my morning routine. Sitting on the counter, side by side, are the two aromas that wake me to the beauty of each new day. On the right, a tall and sturdy coffee pot and by its side, a small daily devotional that reminds me just how big my God really is.
I reach out and flip to the next page, the start of a new day, the seed of a new lesson being planted in my heart. A lesson I don't recognize until it begins to bloom in my everyday life.
The cinnamon swirls on the surface as I take my first sip of coffee. And the verse? Well it's stirring too. Swirling around the mind, brewing thoughts. God's word awakening me to a life lived in Him.
So that little page shouts big truths. In script it says,
Let's scatter a few seeds today and watch what happens.
"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how." -Mark 4:26
As I sink into the couch for a few minutes of cozy reading before the day gets loco-crazy, I think about how planting seeds in Gods' kingdom must mean telling souls about Jesus.
Well yes, feeding souls with scripture is one method of planting seeds, but God had a different lesson plan in mind; a message for me that was less about telling and more about showing; less about what I know and more about humbling low.
So what's another method of planting the seeds for His kingdom crop?
Feeding souls with service.
He is teaching me how to plant seeds of service.
The words are straight forward and they challenge me straight to the core.
"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews...to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the Gospel's sake..." - 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NKJV)
Even Paul, he says it right there, that he is a servant for the Gospel's sake.
And just one chapter over, God challenges me yet again to make my actions bring glory to Him and not to myself. I'm finding that the door out of selfishness is the very same passage that leads us to serve.
"Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being." - 1 Corinthians 10:24
A few days before this verse hit the heart, I had prayed for opportunities. Father God, please can you put in my pathway opportunities to serve those around me. Lord help me to lay aside myself and take up my cross.
As the perfect teacher, he gave the lesson before he gave the answer to my prayer.
Gabrielle, plant the seeds in My Kingdom with your service to others.
If this answered prayer could be measured in cups of coffee, I would tell you that I'm extremely thankful for my new, strong dark roast.
I asked, and my good God provided.
It's a lesson 10 days in the making but the Lord doesn't tire of asking me to serve and so I thank Him that He never tires of serving me hefty helpings of His heavenly strength.
In each of these, the Lord asks me the same question. My child, will you serve?
It is the Lord who asks for my heart in each scenario and it is the Lord I must answer to. Sometimes it is hard to say yes, but I find that the more of me I give away, the more strength the Lord gives to me in return.
Planting seeds of service doesn't always plant the words of the Gospel but it plants the love of Christ and this I do for the Gospel's sake (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)
I've given hugs and given hours and given explanations and I have seen that service leads to curiosity for my motivation to give, and for that, I am ready to give an answer.
It is not of my own strength that I give. It's hard to let go of myself. It's hard, and it hurts, and it humbles, and this world asks a lot of me and do I really have enough for others when I might not have enough for myself? This is what God is breaking me of--myself. That's why discipleship is the process of discipline; Sanding the rough surface of selfishness right off my heart.
Throughout this whole journey, I am flipping pages with Much-Afraid, the main character in the beautifully written novel, Hind's Feet on High Places, an allegory dramatizing the yearning of God's children to be led to new heights of love, joy, and victory.
It is here I find a poetic reminder that there is joy in planting with service.
"This the deepest law we know-
It is happy to go low.
"This is the law by which we live-
It is so sweet to give and give.
"This is the joy of all winged life above-
Happy it is to be able to love.
-Hannah Hurnard
Last night, I was munching on some sunflower seeds and thinking about all the seeds God has asked me to plant this last week.
Because he knows I'm flawed with pride, he leaves me with this healthy reminder that my work is not for my gain but for His glory.
"So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." -1 Corinthians 3:7
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