How much more?

My favorite flower is a Tulip. I’ve always wanted to plant tulips, always. In our previous home, the backyard had no landscaping sense to speak of, so I never had the motivation to plant them. But where we live now, it’s so beautiful here that I finally took the time to do it back in the fall. I planted the bulbs all around the yard, different places, and then it hit me, I would not see the results for months! And it began to eat at me. Drove me nuts that I had to patiently wait until spring to see my favorite flower bloom. I’m a tad compulsive. I like to see instant results. I worked to plant those bulbs and nothing. Just wait. And wait. And wait. I would look out the kitchen window and dream of the day that I could see my tulips! It was becoming a bit creepy, what with my staring at the ground and all. I had to smack myself very dramatic like and yell "get it together man," and carry on.

So finally, I decided to let it go. Slowly, slowly and more slowly, I began to forget about the tulips. Winter came, sort of. No rain, but it was freezing! So my mind was on that, and on the mounds of leaves in the yard, and all the other stuff you think of that winter brings. My focus was elsewhere all winter (I guess it's still winter right, February and all) but I really forgot about the beautiful tulips that I planted! Until finally, the other day, I remembered the tulips! With such excitement I hollered (I love that word. My grandpa used to say it. I try to use it on many an occasion, minus the actual hollering that grandpa would do) at the girls and we ran outside and began to look at all the spots I had planted them. And there they were, little bitty stems…my tulips are on the way. Now it’s driving me nuts because they aren’t growing fast enough but hey, at least they made it. Most of them anyhow. I planted some that have not come through yet. Either I didn’t dig them deep enough, they didn’t get enough water, or they could not stand the cold temperatures we had but for whatever reason, some of them just didn’t make it. They did not make the journey.

It got me thinking, I don’t want to be like the tulip that didn’t make it! I don’t want to be the one that wasn’t dug down deep enough, not rooted in the Word - the one that wasn’t able to endure the temperatures that life brought me. I want to make it!

Romans 10:17 says “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Reading the Word of God will create an irresistible faith in us, a faith that is never daunted, and a faith that never gives up. No matter what life throws our way, our faith will carry us through it. We often fail to realize how large God’s supply is. He has a supply that cannot be exhausted. He tells us to ask and we shall receive. We may not receive the way we think we should, but you can be sure that we will receive.

Matthew 7:11 says “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”

HOW MUCH MORE. We limit God. We limit Him by our lack of faith. The Bible says, HOW MUCH MORE…how much more will God do when we step out in faith. When we step out and do the crazy thing God has asked us to do. When we step out and believe God for the impossible! When we step out and decide that we are not going to live in our past any longer. How much more can God do with a life that is sold out for Him, not looking back, not looking at our particular temperature of life, but looking at the "Author and the Finisher of our faith." HOW MUCH MORE?

How much more.