What are you known for, really?
The problem that so many people face, and maybe you’ve experienced this too, is that you want to be known for your faith, you want to be known as someone who has put their trust in God and is striving to follow Jesus, but when the wind comes, when the storms of life hit, all that gets ejected and what we’re KNOWN FOR… sometimes it’s the opposite of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.”
Peter Steinke tells this story about what happened in the early days of Biosphere 2. Researches in Arizona created a world within a world, so to speak. A completely enclosed atmosphere where they can control wind and rain and all the aspects of the environment so they can study and learn how nature works. Peter writes…
“In the biosphere in Arizona, a three-acre greenhouse in the desert, people noticed that fruit was falling off the first trees prematurely. What had happened? Inside this encapsulated environment, wind, a force that challenges the tree’s branches and strengthens them, is absent. Without wind the branches do not gain sufficient strength to hold the fruit to the time of maturation.”
– Peter Steinke
Reaction Wood
What those researches in the biosphere in Arizona discovered is that the adversity of the wind against the trees produced what they called “Reaction wood.” This is wood that grows inside the tree as the result of the wind making the tree go back and forth, bending it’s branches.
Wind is a powerful force. It can do a lot of damage. But the adversity that the wind brings to the tree actually works for the benefit of the tree. Without the wind, a tree cannot gain the necessary strength it needs to grow, stand tall, and to BEAR FRUIT.
Without wind there is no fruit.
Not for Nothing
Maybe you thought the wind you’ve faced in your life was for nothing. Maybe you thought the storms you’ve had to endure were a sign of the absence of God.
But the presence of a storm is not the absence of God. Just ask those disciples who were in the boat with Jesus, with the Son of God, on the middle of the lake in the middle of the night in Galilee.
You can be in the boat with Jesus and still face a terrible storm.
Will you let the wind do it’s work?
Will you, when the storms of life come, when the wind comes against you, will you let the wind do its work? Will you put your faith in Jesus no matter how difficult the situation and let that wind strengthen your internal muscles of faith?
For that to happen, you have to ask yourself this question: Do you trust God? Do you trust the One who is in the boat with you?
What’s interesting is that the reaction wood that grew inside the tree because of the wind it faced actually gave it the strength it needed to produce it’s fruit and to allow that fruit to grow and ripen until it was mature.
And I just wonder how many of us have given up on God in the middle of the storms we’ve faced and because of that, we don’t have the necessary inner strength to allow the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus to grow to maturity in us.
We see this right now because there are so many storms swirling around us, and many people who wear the name Christian are not bearing the fruit of the Spirit right now.
Why? Perhaps it’s because when the smaller storms of life came they were unwilling to let the wind do it’s work.
God Can Use the Wind
A couple of weeks ago when a storm came through our neighborhood, the wind was so strong it actually broke a huge branch off one of our neighbor’s tree.
Wind can do that. If you don’t have enough internal strength, it can break you.
In this life, you will face storms. There will be winds that rise against you. But what if you let the wind do it’s work in your life.
What if you were less concerned with how THINGS were going to turn out and more concerned with how YOU were turning out?
Here’s what John, one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers, once said. He said, “…the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” – 1 John 4.4
So I want to ask you… What’s greater? What’s stronger? The wind of adversity that may come against you or the wind of the Holy Spirit moving and living and dwelling inside you?
So many times, we pray for God to stop the storm. To make the wind go away. To speak those words again, “Peace be still.”
But what if instead, we could pray for God to strengthen us through the storm?
Here’s what I want you to know today…
God can use the wind to make you into who He wants you to be.
Will you let him?
Will we let God use the wind in our lives to bring the fruit of the Spirit to maturity in us?
Will we, as followers of Jesus, be known for our fruit?
Will we be known for the way we love?
Will we be known for our joy?
Will we be known as people of peace?
Will we be known for our patience?
Will we be known as kind?
Will we be known as good?
Will we be known as faithful?
Will we be known as gentle?
Will we be known as people who have self-control?
In a world where more and more people are known for what they’re against, I pray that we will be known for our love.
But the only way the wind can do its work is if you stay still and remain rooted.
Known for…
What are you know for? What are we known for?
What do you want to be known for? What do we want to be known for?
It’s my prayer that we, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, will find meaning in every storm and purpose in every wind, as God continues His holy work of producing the fruit of the Spirit of Jesus in our lives.
Because…
Without wind there is no fruit.
Without fruit there is no…
That’s something we’ll talk more about next.
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