In Season or Out?

Psalm 1:2-3
...his delight is in the LORD's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.  He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and who leaf does not wither...

Delight - great pleasure or satisfaction
Instruction - an order or command
Meditate - to spend time in quiet thought

I am to take great pleasure or have satisfaction in the Lord's order or command (His Word) for me and then I am to spend time in quiet thought (of His Word) day and night.  A few things must take place before I can do this.  I must be spending time in HIs Word in order to recognize His instruction for me personally.  It is not my job to determine what the Lord's instructions are for everyone else, just for myself.  Then I am commanded to think on Him and the instruction He has for me at all times.

I will mediate on Your precepts and think about Your ways.  I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your Word.  Psalm 119 15-16

What do I find myself taking pleasure in?  What am I consistently thinking about?  Are these things lining up with the things I am taught in the Word or am I letting my flesh determine what my mind is engaged in?

In sitting here thinking about the analogy of the tree planted by streams of water and the fact that it bears fruit in season I have been struck by the fact that my job is to meditate and take delight in God's Word and His job is to decide when it is the season for me to bear fruit.  I am thinking rather abstractly here... I realize that we are to bear the Fruit of the Spirit all of the time... LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL (Galatians 5:22); however, I am referring to bearing fruit in the seasons of life.  Just like the change in seasons we face winter, spring, summer and fall in our lives.  The timing of the seasons is not up to us.  We may spend short or long times in each one or even experience different seasons in different parts of our lives at the same time.  For example, the empty nest can be seasons of both winter and spring.  Some things have ended and other things are just beginning.

Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the Vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.  John 15:4-5

I often spend more time wondering about what I am doing or supposed to be doing rather than meditating on His Word, abiding In Him and then taking action when He instructs me to!  I work way too hard trying to bear fruit - to accomplish things or to appear a certain way - when I am to put my energies toward abiding in Jesus, in obeying His commands and trusting Him for the outcome...  for the fruit bearing if you will.  I am so easily distracted into taking matters into my own hands rather than looking to Him and resting in the fact that He is in control of the seasons in my life.  I must abide (remain in) Him in my thoughts and in my actions and quit spending so much time trying to recognize the fruit I am supposed to be bearing fruit.  I need to trust Him that He is working and that because I am meditating on His Word and seeking Him then I am bearing fruit according to what He has planned not according what I used to do, or what I think I should be doing.

Whether it is my season to be tilled, planted, watered, pruned, to bear fruit or to be re-planted is not up to me but up to my Father.  I have a choice to trust Him whether I am "in season or out".


Father God, I want to do my part in being in Your Word and finding satisfaction there and yet I know I cannot without the strength of Your Holy Spirit.  Forgive me for so often getting my priorities mixed up - in spending so much time trying to bear fruit rather than resting in You and trusting You for the outcome.  I do want to be that tree that is planted beside streams of living water.  I want to trust You for the seasons in my life and stop judging myself so harshly because I think I should be doing something that looks more like what I have always done and realize that I am in Your hands no matter the season and that You are at work in me regardless of what I think I can or cannot see.  Please give me ears to hear You as You lead me through Your Word. Give me strength to obey whether I understand or not.  And restore to me the delight that can only be found in You.  Teach me to abide in You and to meditate on You day and night.  Get my attention quickly, Holy Spirit, when I stray and please help me to step out of the way and bring You glory.  Change me from the inside out, Lord.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.