The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute
The Living Word is a daily devotional featuring Scripture and encouragement from Jeff and Dale of The Jenkins Institute. Each episode offers a thoughtful reading to coincide with the daily devotional guides from our annual devotional books. They are designed to help listeners begin or end their day grounded in God’s Word.
The Living Word: A Daily Devotional with Jeff & Dale from The Jenkins Institute
Week 19: Thursday, Growth Does Not Happen Overnight
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Have you ever planted a garden? I am tag-teaming a garden with
my neighbor and there is more work that goes into it than I could
have ever imagined: tilling the ground, planting in the soil,
watering, and so much more. It blows my mind to think that a plant
so big started as a little seed.
Welcome to Hearing God's Stories, a daily devotional on the parables presented by the Jenkins Institute. This week's devotionals written by Daniel Walker. It's week 19. Today is Thursday. Growth does not happen overnight. Matthew 13, 31 and 32. He put another parable before them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Have you ever planted a garden? I'm tag teaming a garden with my neighbor, and there is more work that goes into it than I could ever have imagined. Tilling the ground, planting in the soil, watering, and so much more. It blows my mind to think that a plant so big started as a little seed. Also think of a person I used to be, the person I used to be when I first became a Christian compared to where I am now. Webster defines growth as to increase in size by assimilation of material into the living organism or by acceleration of material into a non-biological process. The thing about growth is that it does not happen on its own or instantaneously. It is something at which we must work. Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb overnight. He failed many times. This may come as a shock to you, but Michael Jordan was not always the goat, greatest of all time. He did not make his high school basketball team. Thomas Edison worked until he got the light bulb exactly right. Michael Jordan worked until he learned how to build, how to hold his tongue exactly right to become the goat. You and I may not be what we want to be overnight, but as the saying goes, I am not what I ought to be, but thanks to God, I am not what I used to be. Today, I will strive to be better than I was yesterday, and tomorrow I will strive to be better than I was today. You've been listening to Hearing God's Stories, the Parables of the Bible. Thank you for joining us for the Living Word. For more encouragement and ministry resources, visit thejusinstitute.com, and may God's richest blessings be yours, is our prayer for you.