One of my favorite scriptures in the bible is this one from Zephaniah 3:17:
The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
I thought about that scripture this morning as I went to check on one of my plants that hadn’t been doing too well. Last Valentine’s Day, my fiance’ gave me a bonsai rose bush and, after I had replanted it outside, the Georgia heat just about killed it. The roses and leaves dried up in spite of my regular watering and pretty soon, all that was left was one yellowing leaf.
As a last ditch effort to save it, I decided to re-pot it and bring it inside. I collect rainwater to water my plants with, so I decided to use it for this plant as well. It didn’t seem to be working at first because even the one yellow leaf it had left fell off! But pretty soon, a tiny green leaf appeared. Then another. And another.
So this morning, I looked at it again and I see at least 10 small green leaves on the plant…and buds for many more to come. I was delighted with the plant’s growth and whispered to it, “Grow little plant. Just keep growing!”
This situation reminds me that sometimes you might see a situation as dead, but God is still working in ways you cannot see.That’s why you must never stop acting in faith in whatever your situation happens to be. If at any point I had stopped watering and caring for that plant, it would have died. But because I believed it could be resurrected and acted on that belief, eventually I was able to see the resurrection come to pass.
On your health and weight loss journey, continue to renew your hope every day and act in faith on the vision you have of better health and ability to fulfill your purpose with more energy and vitality than ever before. And never forget that God is with you every step of the way. He delights in you! Even when you stumble, He never loves you any less. He is ready to give you the wisdom you need to try a different way if what you are doing isn’t working.
Today, I challenge you to look for evidence that God delights in you in the many blessings that you have, great and small. Just like I did with the little plant, imagine Him rejoicing and singing over you. I’ll bet it will make you smile too!