"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the
firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle
on what we can't see." Hebrews 11:1 (MSG)
I love avocados! Even when I was young, I loved avocados.
One day I decided to plant the pit of one of my avocados. I was surprised at how
huge it was. All I needed was a large pot with soil, and every day I would water
the pot filled with soil. At one time my mom wondered what I was doing: "Why are
you watering dirt?" She asked. I can imagine how silly I looked when I poured
water into an empty pot. However, in this dirt was a huge avocado pit. This is
what motivated me to water this pot.
For days I saw no results. Still I knew without doubt, even though I had never
planted an avocado pit before, that this pit would eventually sprout, as long as
I watered it regularly and offered it a lot of light. This is faith! Once this
miracle happened, I was excited and it motivated me to plant different seeds as
an experience. It was fun. Even the tiniest seeds would sprout. Wow!
Some say that faith is worthless and has no place in life. I guess these people
have never planted seeds. A tiny grain buried in soil sprouts and grows into a
huge plant. Isn't this the miracle of life? And the more we experience our
Heavenly Father, the more our faith grows. As we trust Him, we too can see our
seeds of the unseen sprout up and fulfill their promise. Faith is staring with
wide-open eyes that are focused on our Heavenly Father, knowing that He will
never ever disappoint us.
"God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as
seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles
build nests in it." Matthew 13:31-32 (MSG)
By faith we learn to trust our Father. The more we depend on Him, the more we
experience Him, day in and day out. It keeps on growing!
While we were in las Medulas in Spain (Ancient Romans used these mountains to
flush out gold, and they were, apparently, quite successful), we had a choice to
make. Either take one of the two long ways (2.5 km or 3 km), or the .5 km way.
We thought the indicator for the short way pointed up the mountain, and we took
off in that direction, making our way up a steep, slippery trail. We were wrong.
The indicator didn't point that way at all, and when we saw we were going
nowhere, my wife, who is a mountain goat, decided to explore a bit further.
I was close to the top of one of the Medulas and sat down on the pebbled path.
Because I'm not a mountain goat, I began to wonder how we would ever get down
that mountain. It's then that I felt deep peace from my Heavenly Father filling
me. He told me all would be okay and that my wife would be my guide to safer
ground. Five minutes later, she returned, and indeed, she brought me back to
terra ferma. As we started down, I was amazed at how steep our path really was;
but I wasn't concerned. My Father was in charge!
This was my favorite moment at the Medulas. My Father's presence near the top of
the mountain was the highlight of my day.
Rob Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.