Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

Thirsty Vines
By Sarah Kosanke

“The eyes of all look to You and You give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of all living things.”
Psalm 145: 15-16

I’ve grown up with a garden for as long as I can remember. My father and his father shared a particular love of growing tomatoes, which were not only delicious but gigantic! They watered them often, fed them regularly and provided the most pristine conditions to grow in. I’ve often thought that is how my “spiritual garden” should be too. I learned that by going to God, He gives us all the nourishment we need to produce the right fruits. That all I have to do is ask and He immediately pours on the good stuff. For many years, I’ve lived by this knowledge.

I was mortified though, when I heard how grapes in a vineyard are grown. If grapevines are pampered and treated as tenderly as my father’s precious tomato plants, they produce little fruit of less quality. The best grapevines are withered, painfully pruned to the point of leaving scars on them, baked in full sun with little water and not consistently fed the nutrients they need. How can anyone say that this is good for them? How can they produce fruit in such conditions? What a sweet lesson from our Creator. It’s when these vines are deprived at the surface of what they need, they sink their roots deep into the ground, reaching further and further to find nutrients and water underground. It is said that these vines not only produce the most fruit, they produce the best-tasting fruit. The older and more beat up they are, the better the fruit.

Do you ever find that you ask God for things, good things, and it seems as though He holds out on you? I’m not saying that God ignores us, or He denies us the things we need. Our God provides for us exactly what we need at the time we need it. Sometimes He even holds back something we crave, only to make it better for us in the end. Sometimes He allows painful pruning in our lives to enlarge our spiritual output and understanding. Sometimes His best for us includes tenaciously digging our roots deeper into Him, trusting Him alone, finding our satisfaction nowhere but in Him.

Our Owner is singleminded: He will do all He chooses to grow us stronger, more resilient, and best of all…more fruitful!

GOING DEEPER:
1. What are some things you feel you are lacking that you are crying out to God to provide? Trust Him today, as He is our provider.

FURTHER READING:
Galatians 6:9; Matthew 7:18

Sarah is a single young lady who works as a rehabilitation specialist for mentally ill clients in a group home. She teaches the 5th and 6th grade girls on Sunday Mornings and the 2nd through 4th grade girls on Wednesday nights at Oakwood.