The trees in your yard were once a tiny seed. The apple you ate this morning came from a seed. The 20 feet wide and 300 feet tall sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park could once be held in your hand as you guessed it, a seed. I find it amazing that these tiny things that we can fit in our palms have the potential to become something so large that it's unfathomable to our small minds. In some cases, such as the mustard seed, seeds can contain all the nutrients you need to survive; vitamins B1, B6, C, E, and K! It also has calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, and zinc. All that packed into the tiniest seed known to man.
So how exactly do our prayers compare to a seed? Sometimes we may see our prayers as irrelevant. Most people when they are eating fruit, when they come to seeds they spit them out and throw them in the trash. I think sometimes we tend to do that with our prayers. We spit them out to God, and then throw them away in our minds. We may pray for something that we do not really think will happen, and then instead of acting on it prayer, we forget about it and never think about it again. But what would happen if we took the seed, planted it, and watered it with continuous prayer in belief that something would come of it? If we planted the seeds from our fruit and watered them, wouldn't we see more fruit grow from it? You never know what might grow from the tiniest prayer that you pray. It could have an impact on many people for generations to come.
Let me tell you a story. This weekend I went to a missions conference in Montgomery. It was an amazing opportunity to find out "My Place In His Purpose" and to speak with many missionaries. In one of the breakout sessions I attended, a sweet lady that spent 33 years as a missionary in Africa told me this story. A couple was praying and the Lord burdened them for a specific people group in Africa. They began praying for these people and that they would come to know the Lord. Years later, their daughter was living in Africa and not only met this people group, but began working with them. This couple received a seed from the Lord, planted it, watered it with prayer, and years later their seed had sprouted into something beautiful, and their daughter brought people to know the Lord all because they acted in faith. And that is what faith is! It may not seem like much to us, but the Lord can take it and make it become something beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. As I read in a book called Draw The Circle, "A little faith goes a long way; in fact, a little faith will last an eternity.
One of the most important things I have learned from a seed is that it takes time. Nobody would ever expect to plant a seed and come back the next morning to see it developed to its fullest potential. So why do we expect that with our prayers? So often we want things to happen at the speed of light, and when they don't we assume nothing will come of them. But we have to understand that is what seeds do. They "disappear" and are planted below the surface of the ground. They seem like they are gone, but what we cannot see is that they are being germinated underneath the surface. Then in the proper time, after being watered (or in our case prayed for) they will no longer just be a seed of potential, but they will rise up and become something packed with such beauty. Maybe it seems like nothing has happened with your prayers, but be patient! They are just being germinated!
So here is one last piece of advice from Draw The Circle:
We need the patience of the planter.
We need the foresight of the farmer.
We need the mindset of the sower.
"Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move."-Matthew 17:20
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