We’ll be spending time this week thinking about the many blessings – family, friendships, new opportunities, advancements, etc.- that we’ve enjoyed this year. But will we limit our giving of thanks to the obvious blessings, or will we also give thanks for the hard places of our journey? The places appearing unproductive?
Psalms 65: 11 says “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” (NLT)
These words remind me of the tractor path cutting through the middle of the hay-field on my farm. This path is barren, packed hard from the tractor, wagons and other farm implements repeatedly driven across its narrow strip of ground.
Don’t we all have places like this in our lives? Places where we feel our souls have been lain bare and hardened by repeated disappointment, heartache, loss, and even unanswered prayers? Areas where our hearts now feel dry, cracked, or even worse – dead?
The Psalm writer challenges us that God is able to bring about an abundantly overflowing harvest even from the ground of these hard pathways.
What is the abundant harvest God cultivates from the hard pathways of His children’s lives? Does He reveal His greatest glory by using these areas to produce His miraculous fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23)
As we reflect on this year, let’s not be surprised if we see that our greatest blessings have grown from seeds God has planted and nurtured in our “hard pathways”.
And, as our journey takes us across additional “hard pathways”, may we remember that these too will bring a bountiful harvest when the time is right, when the season is completed. For… “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV)
What are the blessings that God has crowned your year with, that you are giving thanks for this thanksgiving?
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Thanks for the reminder to give thanks in the hard places. We’ve had some “hard places” with our business this year. It caused frustration in the midst of it, but it actually spurred us on to head in a new direction. I’m SO excited about that direction and how God is already using it to help other people. I’m definitely giving thanks for that.
It’s as if you have been reading my mind… I think this is something the Lord has been teaching me a lot about lately. As I look back on my life it seems as though the times I have walked the closest to Him and grown the most with Him have been in the hard times. They definitely have produced the most spiritual fruit in my life. Lasting fruit, that then spills over into the other areas and times in my life. Thank you for your beautiful words.
Erica – thank you for your comments. I also find that the difficult times draw me into the deepest times of intimacy with the Lord. You might enjoy this post as well.