February 6, 2019

Sunflower seasons…

I posted this word today on Surrender Ministries Facebook page on “Word for today” and felt led to share it on the blog as well – for those of you who are not on facebook (which is not a bad thing at all 😉 ).

This morning God showed me a picture of sunflowers following the sun. Did you know that sunflowers follow the sun from where it rises in the east until it sets in the west?

This was taken from an article written by Merrit Kennedy:
“A young flower faces east at dawn and greets the sun, then slowly turns west as the sun moves across the sky. During the night, it slowly turns back east to begin the cycle again. The researchers found that the plant’s turning is actually a result of different sides of the stem elongating at different times of the day.”

How interesting is that?! If we look at the Biblical symbolic, then we think of having our eyes only on God, focused on Jesus. Jesus Himself said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He SEES the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” So much more for us! How many decisions and every-day choices do we make without checking with God. If Jesus could do NOTHING of Himself, why do we seem to think we can? May Holy Spirit remind us when we face decisions to turn our eyes to God and see what is He doing. Is.55:12a “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;…” Col.3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” Invite Holy Spirit today into your decision making and when you do not feel that “Peace” in your heart about a decision it will either mean “wait” or “don’t”.

Interesting about the sunflower stems though: the one side of the stem elongates during the day while following the sun and at night it knows to move back (elongating the other side of the stem this time) from the west to the east until the sun rises in the east again. Similarly in our journey with God, we are constantly growing but we NEED TO KEEP OUR EYES ON HIM AND MOVE WHEN HE MOVES and when we are in a “dark season” – eg. difficult challenges/being stretched/feeling like all prayers hit against the ceiling/ God seems distant – to keep seeking Him with all our hearts because in the “dark seasons”, just like in the case of the sunflowers, we grow in other areas which we do not exercise in the “lighter seasons”. Seasons come and seasons go but one thing is for sure, when keeping our eyes focused on God “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”(Heb.12:2), we need all of the seasons to grow and mature and to live in the fullness that God has planned for us!!