April Showers
by Karen Renfro
“April showers bring May flowers.” A familiar phrase to be sure, but more profoundly a truth that without the spring rains, and even the storms, there would be no blossoms, no leaves, no beauty. How barren our world!
This applies in a spiritual sense as well. Our heavenly Father uses the storms of this life to strengthen, mature and beautify our lives. James 1:2-4 states, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.” The patience principle has been demonstrated clearly for my children and me this spring as we have attempted to start some flowers from seed in our mudroom/ ”greenhouse.” We planted and watered and waited. Then we watered and waited some more. After about a week, the first tiny shoots began to grow! Now as we check on their progress we see new growth almost daily. If we had dug up the seeds after only a couple days because we didn’t see anything, we wouldn’t have a room full of seedlings now ready to be transplanted.
When we, as Christians, allow the fruit of patience to be produced in our lives, even though it comes through the storms, what an affect it has on us. Many times while going through the testing we don’t see what is happening, but our Father is maturing us. He is growing us to the point where we can be “transplanted” to become complete and lacking nothing. Think of how many things would be lacking in our character without patience.
We’ve all been warned of the dangers of praying for patience, because the outcome will be tribulation. The truth is we will all face storms in this life whether or not we pray for patience. Most likely you’re either just coming out of a storm, caught in the middle, or just heading into one. David, the Psalmist, expressed that it was good for him to have been afflicted because it taught him how to trust God and develop a greater understanding of the Word. (Psalm 119:67,71) In other words, he grew up as he weathered the storms. May I encourage you to patiently wait on God to work His perfect work?
“Be ye also patient;
Stablish your hearts:
For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
James 5:8
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