the garden.

I sat down last night to spend some time with Jesus, and this verse just settled into my heart like a seed in the ground. I've been meditating on it ever since. 

I have so many thoughts about this verse that I really don't even know where to begin. If you're a single lady like me and you're reading this I'd like to speak directly to your heart. Do not trade your glory for a worthless idol. Do not allow the enemy to come in and convince you that you are wrong for waiting on the Lord. Do not allow hopelessness, embarrassment, loneliness, despair, or confusion to come in and make you settle for something that isn't God's best for you. Don't trade your promise in for something that will only give you temporary fulfillment. 

Don't let the enemy lie to you about your identity. The waiting, the pain, the discouragement, the insensitive words, the singleness is not your identity. Your identity is the glory of what God has been building in you as you wait on Him to fulfill His promise. Your identity is strength - not weakness. Your identity is beauty - not desperation. Your identity is glory - not singleness. 

Every trial. Every tear. Every time you've picked yourself up after another disappointed hope created more beauty and more strength in you. Every time you submitted yourself to the Lord and His plan while denying your own desires created a precious quality in you. While the landscape of your life may look dead and empty on the surface there is life under the soil. Each time you submitted there was a seed planted. Each time you obeyed another seed was planted. Each tear you cried out of loneliness the Lord used to water the seeds of your faithfulness. Look around you Dear Sister in Christ, you are standing on the soil of a well watered and cared for garden. Look to the left and to the right! Can you see where your garden ends? No! The years of toiling and planting and watering and working seemed to bear no fruit, but now look. Your years of toiling are over. While others planted small gardens and their fruit came quickly you were destined for more. Your inheritance is as vast and lush as the Garden of Eden. Your blessings will be many and you will see the fruits of your labor in all seasons. Your Garden will be a place where you will meet with your Creator in abundant peace. Your Garden will be a place of provision since the Lord knows your life from beginning to end. He gave you seeds to plant of blessing, but also for resources for your future life. Do you need patience and kindness to train up your children? Your tree is already full grown and mature - just walk to it hand-in-hand with your God and pluck the fruit from the tree. Do you need wisdom? It's tree is also mature and ready to be used. 

Daughter of the Most High God. Look up. Watch your garden bloom. Toil no longer. Enjoy the fruit of your labor.