When I was growing up in Wisconsin, I’d often ride my bike past the apple orchard in our neighborhood. In every season I’d watch the changes take place.
From sweet-smelling apple blossoms in springtime, to warm summer days when we’d climb the apple tree’s gnarly branches, to the crisp days of autumn when we’d pick fresh, ripe apples.
All year long, we’d wait with expectancy for the fruit to come.
Growing took time, but it was always worth the wait.
So it is with our faith life.
As you release your worries and cares to God, you are planting seeds of faith in the soil of hope—faith that one day your seed prayers will grow and come to fruition. That’s the nature of hope, believing God will provide, that He will answer above and beyond what you’ve asked for.
You just never know what the result of your prayers will be, but God always answers—and He may just surprise you with bushel baskets of answered prayers.
And so we pray. And as we wait on God, we mature. We grow up on the inside. Character is formed and trust grows.
Just as we anticipate the day when round, red fruit will ripen, we look forward with hope to the moment our answers will ready for picking.
You and I may be praying about the same thing, but our answers may look different—just like apple trees bear different varieties of apples–like Gala, Braeburn, Macintosh or Red Delicious.
We wait with hope, expectant that good things will happen. That one day things will be different, better.
And yet, sometimes we are afraid to hope. We’ve been disappointed and we don’t want to be hurt again. But what makes the difference is when we know on whom we wait–on God, not on others.
We wait for a “yes” or a “no” or a “wait” answer to our prayers. And we live in the mystery of God’s ways, knowing that what He does is out of His great love for us. Even when we do not understand.
We wait with joyful hope on the One who goes beyond our expectations.
Despite hard things, and in the midst of tough times, believe that God has more for you–more than you can ask or imagine. That is our “wild hope”
Wild hope is planting seeds of faith and expecting orchards of blessings. It’s courageous and expectant—and celebratory—knowing that your great expectations aren’t too large for the great, big God we serve.
We can have this kind of hope because of Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us. Sacrificing His life so we can truly live. Rising again glorious and alive! He is the true Wild Hope.
Unpredictable? Yes. He goes beyond—far beyond—what we can imagine, and leads us into a future we never could’ve dreamed of.
In times of defeat, doubt or discouragement, pray.
In times of joy and victory, pray.
Know that your prayers really do make a difference. Trust the God of abundance, the God of so much more.
Harvest time is coming.
For more prayer resources by Jackie M. Johnson:
No Comments