How the word bears fruit
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
It shall not return to me empty. Isaiah 55:11
Read Isaiah 28:23—29
The prophet has prepared diligently. He speaks. I am to attend. I am to listen. My whole being is to be open to this word from God as the ground is peeled open by the plough. And when I hear, when God addresses me, arrests my attention and speaks so that I know that this is the Lord himself addressing my life — as he does: I have heard few sermons where there is no word for me — then, like the open ground, I am to be harrowed. I am to close around that word. I need not remain open, waiting for another, or I may be robbed of this word. I am to hold it, to hold it in. I am to let it work its way into me. Even as the season advances, the rains come, God is intimately and always and seasonally at work, and I need not be barren of fruit.
God my provider, the whole earth is yours. Its seasons and their rhythms speak of you. You have made me for harvest time. Even my life has its seasons, times of waiting, time for listening, for recognising when to speak, and now, time for receiving your word, grasping and holding it hungrily, thirstily, and not letting go. May your word abide in me. May your summons and your assurance and your peace and your direction, your correction, your guidance, your naming of who I am — all you say to me in Jesus — may these all take form in my life. May I be productive in the Spirit, truly productive.