How Much Longer?

"Fruitfulness follows faithfulness." - Pastor Steven Furtick.

Taken from the opening verses of Psalm 1, these three profound, but simple words were posted as a meme last night on his church's social media page. Isn't it funny how we know this principle is true, and yet we continually find ourselves hoping that our breakthrough of fruitfulness is always a few days, weeks, months or years closer than what it is.

Notice the statement doesn't come with a timeline, yet as we look at circumstances and situations in our lives, it's the first thing we add. Whether in our own lives or the scenario of someone else's... the comments are the same.

This should have happened by now.
That doesn't seems right.
Something is amiss.
You would have thought after all this time...

And this is a hard battle to resolve. Scripture is replete with stories of people who remained faithful for decades before they witnessed results that people would call "fruitful". Yet we have difficulty with much shorter time-frames. Knowing what to do is a struggle.

Even as I write this, I'm thinking of the lady who called in to the Dave Ramsey show yesterday regarding her families finances. She and her husband started a church plant 6 years ago and the church is still not in a position to support them financially by any means. Objectively speaking, it's easy to agree with Dave on this... you'd think after a year or two, enough would be happening to support them to some degree. Six years is a long time to be barely getting by as a church plant.

But who knows how close they are to fruitfulness because of their faithfulness? Only God.

And many more stories like this are too many to count.

So, on this #missionsFriday, let's pray for missionaries who are facing similar challenges regarding ministry. Pray that God would continue to encourage and strengthen them as they remain faithful, even if the resulting fruit seems lacking. Pray for wisdom and insight, if something truly is amiss or needs to be changed. May God bring revelation as to how best proceed in the days and months to come. Pray for a fortification of their faith and resolve to continue to trust and rely upon God, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable circumstances.

May they not quit,
But press on towards the price
Of the high calling.
For the glory of God
And the cause of Jesus Christ.

- PNC