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Growth Comes from God, February 25
They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.
Hosea 14:7
.
The change of heart by which we become children of God is in the Bible spoken
of as birth. Again, it is compared to the germination of the good seed sown by
the husbandman. In like manner those who are just converted to Christ are, “as
newborn babes,” to “grow up” to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus (
1
Peter 2:2
;
Ephesians 4:15
). Or like the good seed sown in the field, they are to grow
up and bring forth fruit. Isaiah says that they shall “be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (
Isaiah 61:3
). So from natural
life, illustrations are drawn, to help us better to understand the mysterious truths of
spiritual life.
Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object
in nature. It is only through the life which God Himself has imparted, that either
plant or animal can live. So it is only through the life from God that spiritual life
is begotten in the hearts of men. Unless a man is “born from above,” he cannot
become a partaker of the life which Christ came to give (
John 3:3
, margin).
As with life, so it is with growth. It is God who brings the bud to bloom and the
flower to fruit. It is by His power that the seed develops, “first the blade, then the
ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (
Mark 4:28
). And the prophet Hosea says of
Israel, that “he shall grow as the lily” (
Hosea 14:5
). “They shall revive as the corn,
and grow as the vine” (
verse 7
). And Jesus bids us “consider the lilies how they
grow” (
Luke 12:27
). The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety
or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished to minister to their life.
The child cannot, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more
can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth. The plant, the
child, grows by receiving from its surroundings that which ministers to its life—air,
sunshine, and food. What these gifts of nature are to animal and plant, such is Christ
to those who trust in Him....
In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an
atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who
choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live and grow up to the stature of
men and women in Christ Jesus.
As the flower turns to the sun, that the bright beams may aid in perfecting its
beauty and symmetry, so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven’s
light may shine upon us, that our character may be developed into the likeness of
Christ (
Steps to Christ, 67, 68
).
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