What feelings emerged for you when you read last Friday’s post? Perhaps you were drawn to that idyllic picture of God and prayer, yet frustrated because it’s nothing like your experience. Perhaps for you, prayer is as dry and unattractive as a dead plant, and the garden of your inner life suffering from neglect.

Stay right there for a moment. What is your disappointment saying to you? Does it speak of a longing for the Gardener to return and bring forth beauty?

Share that longing with God. Even if you don’t feel God’s presence or sense that you have been heard, entertain the thought that God is with you and listening.

“Where can I go from your Spirit?” asks David rhetorically in Psalm 139. Paul could tell the Philippians to rejoice in all circumstances because he knew God was near. Jesus himself said, “I will be with you always.”

God is always actively loving us–even when we don’t experience God or see change, even when we can’t pray.  The writer of Hebrews helps us to believe that. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Even when we don’t feel God’s presence or see growth in our garden, God has not stopped tending us. The fact that we long for God is evidence that the Spirit has been at work in our lives.

References and credits:
Psalm 139:7; Philippians 4:5; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 11:1
“Dormant Fern Garden” by Jay Pastore. Used with permission.
“Sprout” by Dixeroadrash. Used with permission.
Banner: IMGPO854 vege garden by Rae Allen. Used with permission.

© Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim, 2015.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission from Esther Hizsa is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used provided there is a link to the original content and credit is given as follows: © Esther Hizsa, An Everyday Pilgrim 2013, 2014, 2015.  http://www.estherhizsa.wordpress.com.