PASTOR’S CORNER, Pat Mann, President of Good Samaritan Auxiliary
After the failure of the first try, I decided to do better. I got pots this time. That way, I can plant them earlier, and if we have a storm or a late freeze, I can just move them into the shed until the threat of the hail or high winds and cold weather is over. I, in fact, did move them in one day because we were expecting a late freeze. Then I set them back out. I could also move them into areas that had more sunshine as the shaded areas changed throughout the day. Had some blooms that year, but no tomatoes. Hmmmm!
I figured my pots are too small AND I need to have a wire cage for them to climb on I instead of falling to the ground. So, for the next year, I got bigger pots and put wire cages around them. I remember thinking “THAT’S surely going to do it.” However, one or two dried up tomatoes is all those plants produced that year.
I then thought, “If my pots are still too small, I might as well put them in the open ground again because if the pots were bigger, I would not be able to move them easily.”
Sometimes, in our Christian experience, we don’t think big enough. The God we serve is BIG, bigger than we can ever even begin to imagine.
Ephesians 3:20 KJV: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us ...”
I was greatly lacking in my understanding of how to grow tomatoes. In my short-sighted thinking I trusted in my own limited knowledge and reasoning, which failed – again.
They tell me when fighter pilots are training to fly those high-powered little planes, they are taught to trust their instruments. They are not to trust what “seems right to them.” They may “feel” like they are flying level or upward when they are actually flying on a collision course with the ground below. If they depend upon their own feelings, they may crash. They must trust the instruments that tell the truth about the course they are on.
If Christians merely go by what “feels right” to them, they may crash. We must rely on our instrument, the Word of God, to tell us the truth, even when it seems illogical.
It may have been illogical to Joshua that just marching around Jericho for seven days would give them the victory over the large walled city of Jericho, but Joshua was obedient to the instructions of God and won a great victory.
It may have been illogical to Gideon that he should reduce the number of his soldiers until he had only three hundred men to go against thousands of Midianites, with weapons of clay pots, torches, and trumpets. But Gideon followed the instructions of God, and his army had a great victory over the many Mideonites.
So, whether we are growing tomatoes or living the Christian life, we must never depend upon our own understanding, but trust what the Bible says. It is always correct.
