“Cultivating the soil of friendship yields an abundant harvest.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – April 25, 2024
He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish. Psalm 107:35-38, NIV
For the People of God in the Old Testament, one of their greatest longings was a place to call home, as it says in Psalm 107, “a city where they could settle.” Whether enslaved in Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, or exiled to Babylon, Israel often lacked a land to call their own and all the benefits that come with this gift. Yet they held out hope for a “promised land,” a place where they could sow fields, plant vineyards, and see a fruitful harvest (Psalm 107:37).
Though there may be a few exceptions, I imagine most people reading these words are not sustained by fields that they sow or vineyards that they plant. We live disconnected from the land and our sources of sustenance and provision. That said, I find myself reflecting deeply today upon this question: what are the cities the Lord has given to us in which we are meant to settle? When asked through a spiritual lens, much wisdom is to be gained from this inquiry.
For some of us, this is a call to stick around and invest in the places we call home. There is a depth of knowledge and richness of life that can only be experienced by the gift of sustained continuity. Many times, we, of our own accord, change jobs or churches, put our kids in new schools, and move across town with little to no thought of the cost of change. Do these decisions often bring with them great opportunities and blessings? Of course. Yet they also are a hard reset, a move away from ground that has been cultivated for many years to start afresh with untilled soil.
I find this question can also be directly applied to the relationships we cultivate and nurture in our lives. Just as the Lord gave Israel a city in which they could settle, he also gives us meaningful relationships in which we are meant to invest for the long haul. Cultivating the soil of friendship yields an abundant harvest. And this is the key- invest in the people that God has given to you, rather than spending your life searching for an abstract idea of the kind of people we wish were in our lives! Receive your relationships as a gift from God, trusting that he has given them to you for a reason and are therefore “places” in which you can settle, trusting that it will yield a fruitful harvest.
Prayer
Father, thank you for the gift of places to call home and people to share our lives with. Give us the courage to stick around and invest ourselves fully in both, believing you are at work in every detail of our lives, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Reflect further upon this question: What are the cities the Lord has given you in which you are meant to settle?
Related Reading
Exodus 1:7; Isaiah 41:18; Amos 9:14
Worship Resource
Maverick City Music & UPPERROOM: I Am Free
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