Your New Year's Breakthrough

 

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  

 

My husband and I stopped by a friend's house for a New Year's Day visit. During the course of our conversation, I posed the standard visionary question so frequently discussed as the calendar year changes digits.   

"What are your hopes for the upcoming year?"

Clarence sighed deeply, always indication that he had carefully contemplated his response. "The Lord has spoken to me that the revelation for the upcoming year is in the soil of the previous year."

My forehead wrinkled. Clarence-ever the deep thinker-rarely gave answers that were understood without further investigation.

"The soil of the previous year?"

"Well, you know, last year was really tough. I sure hope next year is better, but even so, the hard times were beneficial. In order to prepare me for what He is going to do in my life this coming year, God planted things in my life last year in anticipation of the coming season. "

"What kind of things?"

"You know. Challenges and issues."

My throat tightened. This conversation was getting a little deeper than I had planned. I wasn't sure that I wanted any more clarification.  The intent of my inquiry was purely for the sake of fellowship-not the responsibility that would accompany deeper revelation. I was already firmly convicted of the need to begin my weight management campaign the next day. I wasn't prepared for the accountability that was sure to come with more spiritual illumination.

"Problems and difficulties," Clarence continued. "Those things are the riches in the dirt."

Too late. My motto that ignorance is bliss was about to be shattered.

"Problems are riches?" I asked.

"If I were to mistake the riches for dirt, I would despise the very thing I needed to thrive in the coming year."

As much as I hated to admit it, I knew Clarence was right. It was the same principle my mother taught me. I'll never forget the time she bought some manure for our garden.

"Why are you buying that?" I asked in shock. I couldn't image why anyone would pay for poo.

"It's fertilizer," Mom replied. "It makes the soil rich so that plants can grow bigger and more beautiful."

That made about as much sense to me as eating my vegetables, but Mom was right. Later that year, our garden was bursting at the seams.

Just like my mother used manure to increase the yield in our garden, God often uses stinky situations to grow fruit in us.  Without the issues of life, our soil will be deprived of perseverance and our garden will not produce hope. Adversity is the manure that enriches our soil so that we can grow bigger and more beautiful in God.

 

Prayer: Lord, help me to embrace your perspective in the midst of life's troubles. Help me to remember that if I hold difficulties in contempt, I will deprive myself of the perseverance and hope that are necessary for my break-through in the coming year.