“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.” Psalm 37:3-5, NASB.
As I was reading this morning, I was reminded again that faithfulness to God is not momentary or fleeting, but is by definition a decision, backed by a decision, backed by a decision over extended periods of time. The Psalmist (David) reminds us here that we are to “CULTIVATE” faithfulness and to DO GOOD. The doing of good is the action behind the decision of faithfulness. Faithfulness is not the byproduct but is the decision itself. We choose faithfulness. We choose to honor the commitment we make to God. We choose to see the world through the lens of our decision for faithfulness. We choose/decide to do it over and over again.
The word cultivate brings to mind the process of farming. While I am not a farmer I have spent a few days working in a garden. Working a garden requires preparing the soil, planting a seed, caring for the seed (Water, etc) weeding the garden, caring for the plant, guarding against predator rabbits :), etc. IOW…no farmer just throws seed, or plants it and leaves it alone. To do so is to leave the produce in the hands of “chance.” In like manner, we are not called to leave our faithfulness to chance. We cultivate it. We decide. We immerse ourselves in the Word. We guard the seed with accountability. We weed the garden, removing other things that diminish precious resources and nutrients.
In our spiritual lives, we must choose to cultivate faithfulness…or we are by default cultivating unfaithfulness. What we cultivate becomes our delight. When my parents would plant corn or cucumbers or melons in the garden, they would go out often to check the progress. They looked forward to the harvest. They sought the product of their labor. The did not plant corn to simply have corn plants…they wanted a have an ear of corn to eat. The bigger, more perfect the ear, the greater their delight.
In the same way, when we guard and cultivate faithfulness, we come to delight in the product of our labors.
Cultivate faithfulness. Dwell in the Land. Delight in the Lord. Your product will come and it will be amazing.
Shalom, CA
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