Photo by Moritz Knöringer on Unsplash
If we were sitting on my front porch, sharing a cup of coffee, and I leaned in real close, looked you in the eyes and asked, “Do you want to flourish this year?” I wonder what you would say.
Would you think about your current to-do list that keeps growing despite your best efforts to knock off another task?
Would you remember the harsh words you spoke to your spouse last night, or the harsh words they spoke to you?
Would your heart race as you recalled the mounting bills lying on your kitchen counter, waiting to be paid, yet still unopened as you dread to look at them?
“Yes, of course, I want to flourish, but my life feels like it is anything but flourishing,” you admit.
Flourish is a bold word, but it also a lovely word. A word that encompasses movement, growth, hope. We were meant to flourish, not just survive. And yet so often we feel like we are in survival mode. Everything stacked up against us.
How can we flourish in a world that seems hell-bent on destroying us?
I read it the other day in Psalm 80 and had to pause. The proceeding day had been difficult. I felt like I was floundering instead of flourshing. Looking for some encouragement and wisdom in his word, I read through Psalm 80, and paused at verses 4-5:
“O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.”
Our family has had our share of tears to drink the past few years, as I’m sure many of you have as well. I related instantly to Asaph’s testimony in these verses: God has fed us with the bread of tears. It’s a hard place to be when your food consists of your sorrow.
Perhaps what Asaph captures best in these verses is his concern that God is angry. How many of us believe we are not flourishing because God is in some way disappointed with us? We believe our eyes are engulfed in tears because He is angry with our prayers.
This is a hard place to be. Adversity is hard enough, but when we feel that we are the root cause of the adversity, it provides another level of burden to carry. What are we doing wrong?
But then, perhaps a bit peculiarly, Asaph begins using the metaphor of a vine. He reminds the Israelites of their history in the following verses:
“You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.” (v-8-9)
The vine here is the nation of Israel who escaped out of the land of Egypt, delivered into the promised land. God performed miracle after miracle bringing His people to a place where they could flourish: Pharaoh let them leave Egypt, God miraculously parted the Red Sea so they could walk through on dry land, and he fed them with manna in the desert.
And yet here they were, years later, failing to flourish:
“Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?…Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine.” (12, 14)
The people are broken, plucked. They are a vine that is at its end. Asaph is asking God to turn His face toward this vine and cause it to flourish once again.
I have no doubt, friend, that many of you can relate. Perhaps there was a time in your life that you felt like you were flourishing, but now things seem to be withering. You feel ravaged by the winds of this world. Disappointment after disappointment has led to deep discouragement, possibly even despair. You wonder what happened to the good ole days, when life was bright, beautiful, believable.
You question whether you have done something wrong. You wonder if God even hears your cries. Your tempted to keep pushing the ache down and just plow through.
But there is a Vine that took all the ridicule you feel, all the sorrow that engulfs your heart, all the doubt your mind replays—I AM THE VINE, Christ whispers, and if you rest in me, you will flourish. (John 15:1)
These words in the ESV Devotional Psalter capture the beauty of Christ’s claim as the vine:
“God was insistent that his people flourish, but they could never have done so if left to their own resources. They needed deep deliverance, not just from Egyptian captivity but from sin’s captivity. When Jesus Christ came to earth, he called himself the vine (John 15:1). In other words, he came to do what Israel failed to do. He came to spread the shade of his blessing far and wide. United to him by faith, we too become part of that life-giving vine and we bear fruit (John 15:4-5).”
The Lord insists that we flourish. And he has provided a way to do so. He Himself is the vine, securing our nourishment and growth and life. He reminds us so gently throughout the pages of his word, that apart from him, the true vine, we can do nothing.
Might this be the key to flourishing: Abiding?
It’s so simple and yet we so often take its truth for granted. We were created to abide in the true vine: Christ.
But it’s easy to forget this in our daily life rhythms. It’s easier to sleep thirty minutes longer than to wake early and spend sacred time alone with him. We tell ourselves we will squeeze quiet time in later, and yet somehow life’s demands prevent us from doing so. We allow comfort to make the final call.
And yet, He gently draws near, lifts our face into his splintered hands and says, “Child, look at me. I’ve already secured your flourishing. You are mine forever. You need only draw near to me, the life source, and you will flourish.”
Do you want to flourish in 2024? Abide in him.
I love how John Piper describes what it means to abide:
“I think the essential meaning of our active abiding is the act of receiving and trusting all that God is for us in Christ. If a branch remains or abides attached to the vine in such a way that it is receiving all that the branch has to give, then that is a picture of what John means by believing or trusting Jesus.”
He has so much to give to you, dear heart. When we abide in the vine, we flourish. We trust all that God is for us in Christ.
Our spirits are restored to their rightful place when we spend time talking with him. He reminds us of who we are in him. Our doubts begin to crumble in light of the truths of his word. Our hearts fill with gratitude as we recount the sacrifice he made for us so that we might abide with him.
If you want to flourish in 2024, Abide. The world is bent on destroying you, but you can bloom when you receive all he has to give you. You’ve got fruit that is waiting to flourish.
I can’t wait to see you flourish.
Cheering you on,
~Chris
Reminded of a favorite song; "Thrive" by Third Day.