Numbers – 2018-01-10
As I was in my prayer room this morning, I was separating seeds based on when they need to be planted: some need to be planted in fall, others in spring: some inside, some outside. It sure looks like a lot of seeds… One package said, “these are rarely planted from seeds, but usually from cuttings, plant a lot.” I think I will just be throwing those out and hoping for the best…
I spent so many years in the bookkeeping world where numbers drive the world… Some of these seeds were probably not a great investment – I will be blessed if 1 plant comes out of that packet.
We Do the same with our lives: we want to know how many attended this event, how many this or that… as if success is based on numbers. In God’s economy, it’s not about numbers, it’s really not about “how many/today”. Sometimes we are called to plant from what we cut off another plant, other times seeds… many seeds are not viable, others produce abundant fruit.
We plant, God provides the growing conditions and the increase, God provides the fruit.
If He speaks to 1 person today through our lives, then 1 is the perfect number for us. Some are called to witness to the world, others one at a time.
I think of the book Encourage Me by Chuck Swindoll; He speaks of a mother praying for her son, who became an evangelist who reached many. Sometimes we are called to encourage and pray for one. The numbers are God’s business. Our business is to be accountable to God – to our calling, not to keep score or to compare ourselves with others. We are called to compare our lives, our hearts with Jesus, not with other people. When I choose a craft pattern, I don’t want it to be a copy of a copy of a copy. Similarly, I don’t want to be more like someone else, I want to be more like Jesus. Humans fail and fall – Jesus does not… He is our pattern, our model, our comparison. Though we can never be exactly like Him, we can continue to live, (through the Holy Spirit), more in His image.