Work It Out Daily

I’m reading a great book… It’s called The Bible. 

What have I learned from it? I guess that would be, that nothing changes unless you work it out daily with God.

This is some food I brought in from the garden this morning. I washed it for me to eat today. 

A couple pieces of kale to make some kale chips with for a snack, some cabbage leaves to use for wraps for my sandwich at lunch, some Jamaican cherries, plums, mulberries and peaches I’ll munch on for a few days. My two tomatoes are just to encourage me to never give up growing tomatoes even if the ugly horn worm seems be winning against me. I think God wants me to remember I’m more than a conqueror in Him. So He had me plant one more tomato plant. 

In gardening I used to think I needed to wait until the entire bush was covered with fruit before I harvested and enjoyed the food. But, that seemed to end in tragedy often as squirrels, rabbits and birds have their way with my food supply. 

Now, I pick food from the garden daily for my and my families sustenance. 

As I was cleaning the food, God said “This is the same way with breaking strongholds like fear and anxiety.” I thought, yes…we grow as we go, we win as we work, we get free as we get in the fire with Jesus. 

You know, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for just storing up head knowledge and never living it out. He called them whitewashed tombs. They never allowed The Holy Scriptures to penetrate their hearts enough to actually be doers of the Word. 

What good is biblical knowledge without freedom? What good is a tree full of fruit if we never eat it? 

We need to be working out our faith daily by stepping out of our comfort zones and growing! We need to do things that scare us until they don’t scare us anymore. Or keep doing them even if they do keep scaring us, because eventually our peace will catch up to our obedience. 

My son said to me yesterday, “Mommy, you look healthy.” I thought to myself, Only God! Only God has done the healing in my body. But, I did have to do some sweating and work to get there. 

I’m doing the hard work everyday to heal my physical body. But, more than anyone sees, I’m doing the mental work with Jesus to “look healthy” mentally. 

Fear isn’t mastered in a one time experience. It’s a daily work. It’s the daily work, determined to not be a whitewashed tomb, but truly taking what we read in God’s Word and truly putting it to practice. 

It’s like eating a few fruits and veggies each day. That’s how we heal. 

Thank you Jesus for showing us how to continue to work out our faith with you.