#itsabambooseason
After I read this passage, I was immediately annoyed! I've been studying Bible passages on wealth because baby girl needs her bank account to look more like heaven and less like the other place. And whenever I want to study without my phone, one of my favorite ways to still get specific themed passages is to use the “Topical Index” section of my AMP (amplified) bible. I’ll usually skim through the topics until I land on one that makes my spidey senses tingle. Lol, no I actually intentionally looked for a passage that would remind me that neither my job (or lack thereof), my relationships, nor my talent is the source of my wealth -God is. Since Genesis 26:12-13 was the first passage under the subtitle ''God Gives Wealth” (fitting enough, right?) I turned to the passage and read:
"12 Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the Lord blessed and favored him. 13 And the man [Isaac] became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and extremely distinguished..."
You see, if you’ve been sowing seeds (like your gifts, your talents, your time, your money, your works, your relationships, etc.) in faith that it would bear the harvest you’ve been waiting for but it’s taken more than a year to yield, this passage feels like an immediate slap to the face! My first thought was “Well, God I’ve been planting seeds! I’ve been sowing kindness, I’ve been sowing generosity, I’ve been sowing into mastering my gifts, I’ve been sowing into developing people. In fact, for 5 years every seed you’ve given me I’ve planted and though I’ve seen a harvest in the lives of the people I’ve led, I’ve yet to see the one I’ve been waiting for in mine! But Isaac planted, what a few couples seeds and he yields a hundred times in that same year?!?!
As soon as I was tempted to sink into a hot offense, God softly quenched my fury with 3 thoughts from this verse that I’d like to share with you. For the gals who’ve been waiting a while, this one’s for you. *picks up mike*.
1. YOUR SEED IS NOT THEIR SEED
One afternoon, I was playing a drawing game with my nephew and his sister. In this session, the young artists were to draw a portrait of yours truly 🙃. The only rule was that they couldn’t look at each other's drawings until they were both done and ready to share. My nephew went first, showing me a lovely pancake shape with two sticks attached to it. Simply breathtaking. Then my niece went next, showing me a lovely pancake shape with two chocolate chips I assumed resembled my eyes, followed by a nose, and two sticks attached to a shape she described as my dress. Just Stunning.
My nephew, very satisfied with his work, smiled with pride at his drawing… that is until he saw what his sister had. In a huff, he threw down his drawing, shared he was not playing this game anymore, and galloped away to find something else.
Nothing can cause more of a stumble on our path than comparison. How many of us have thrown in the towel on fulfilling our purpose or our season just because it didn’t look like someone else's?
You know what rebirthed my frustration while reading the Genesis 26 passage? Comparison! It didn’t matter that Isaac was long gone (and I mean long gone). Whether the person is dead or alive, the sting of comparison is potent whenever we allow it. Comparison can lead us to covetousness and envy which allows the enemy to present to us the same seed of doubt he presented to Adam and Eve that caused them to question God’s character. Not to mention, it poisons our own character! Ever had a sip of Haterade?! The aftertaste is…self-destructive.
In my mini-meltdown, comparison led me to entertain the question- Is God actually good and faithful towards me? (Even though Psalm 86:15 clearly tells me He is.) Maybe my dreams are too big for me. Maybe I’m in over of my head. Maybe, maybe, maybe. All because my harvest hasn’t happened like Isaac's, or my girlfriend Betsy, or the next famed Tiktok influencer.
The truth is that I think we want copy and paste blessings. Because we can visibly see what our neighbor has, that’s what we want. But God wants to do something through us that “eyes have not seen” (1 Corinthians 2:9). If our eyes haven’t seen it yet, then our seed, our process, our experience, and our life are not supposed to look familiar.
Unfamiliarity is scary, I know! But we have to remember there’s an enemy that wants us to stop. That wants us to quit. That wants us to keep our dreams small. Because he knows that God has something great in mind for us and that if we mess around and stick it out, it’s game over for him! So to stop us, he’ll throw everything at us- especially comparison. So, a word from the wise? (and straight out of the book of Wisdom) - “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you” (Proverbs 4:25) In other words, keep 👏🏾 your 👏🏾eyes 👏🏾on 👏🏾your 👏🏾own 👏🏾seed👏🏾. Don’t let what God is doing in other people’s lives stop you from what He plans to do in your life. He loves you just the same as the next and He’s faithful to all. Which leads us to our next thought-
2. IT'S THE SON, NOT THE SEED
Where did Isaac’s increase come from? Maybe he lucked out on some magical beans. Where’d he even get them anyway? How’d he get the money to buy it? Where’d he even learn how to farm?! Who gave him the land?!?
I promise you, I asked this Genesis verse so many questions! What was I looking for? I was looking for the formula to his success- scanning through his works to find what exactly he did so that I could replicate it in order to get the same results under the same time frame.
Some of us have gone into deep debt just to attend the same university “they” went to because “that’s where all the successful people who do [insert career] go”. For others, we’ve wasted years of joy entertaining relationships that drain us all because “that’s the clique so-and-so has so I have to have them too”.
What we’re we looking for? We were looking for the formula to success. Oftentimes, we’ll look for it in the lives of the successful people we admire. So we replicate their actions, habits, and works in hopes that we can replicate their success.
Personally, I don’t think that’s a bad place to start. In fact, replication/imitation is how we can learn new things and even better ourselves. But our works are only half of the formula, and if we lean on that more than we lean on God, then we’ll always be striving from our own finite abilities.
The bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works”. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we no longer have to work to receive God. Therefore, His reason for blessing us is not because we can work hard. He blesses us just because He loves us. Love is who He is and He was love before we were even born to do anything. Since Hebrews 13:8 tells us that God has never and will never change, neither will His love for us even when we don’t deserve it. And so when we sacrifice our relationship with the One who loves us so much in exchange to work harder, we’re missing the multiplicity formula.
What’s the multiplicity formula, you ask? O, the same one that fed 5,000 people from just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (John 6:1-14). In fact, it’s the same formula that gave Isaac a hundred times more than what he planted.
How could he gain so much with so little effort? Because Isaac’s work had God’s blessing on it. It’s not just the university, it’s not just the job, it’s not just the skills, it’s not just the relationships- it’s that and God. God is the one who brings promotion. God provides the seed. God provides the resources. So don’t make the mistake of putting your seed first and God second. “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these. things (all your needs) will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33) That’s the formula we don’t want to miss!
3. TIMING MATTERS
At first, it sucked knowing Isaac reaped a bountiful harvest in under one year as my own timeline was still ticking. But then God urged me to look at what happened before Isaac’s harvest. You see, Isaac moved to that land in the first place because there was a famine in his homeland. And I believe that it was God’s timing of this famine that also attributed to Isaac's success.
While we’re getting upset that our harvest is taking too long to come, we don’t realize that at the same time we’re cultivating the seed God has given us, He’s creating a need in the earth for the harvest we’ll soon reap.
Take for example the stories like the widow’s olive oil (2 Kings 4:1-7 or even the story of Joseph- you ever noticed that in each experience of their increase, there was a famine either in their land or somewhere close by?
Joseph cultivated his gift of interpreting dreams by using them frequently and it brought glory to God. Eventually, it took him from prison to being Pharaoh's second-in-command (Genesis 41). After 7 years, a famine struck Egypt. However, thanks to Joseph, only Egypt was able to provide the harvest that both its citizens and neighboring cities needed (Genesis 41:55-57).
God will sometimes allow a depletion in one area in order to position you as the only solution to it.
If you don’t remember anything in this blog, please remember this: It’s taking this long because God is positioning your bamboo season.
You are the answer to a problem somewhere. But to be the answer, there must first be a problem. So don’t let the waiting period intimidate you! Because it’s that perfect alignment of problem and solution that will bring an exponential increase.
We serve God that has a knack for sending incredible growth after what feels like dry seasons- those seasons that we think nothing is coming from the work we’re putting in.
Like bamboo, it seems inactive on the surface. But beneath the soil, it's growing, expanding, strengthening, and preparing to spring forth in its time. And after 5 long years, it shoots up growing at a Guinness book of Word records type of rate (literally 35 to 40 inches a day!)
When it happens to you, people will call it an overnight success! But even overnight successors will tell you it took years cultivating their gifts before it took seconds for real results to come through. So don’t get weary in your well-doing. Don’t give up. Because at the proper time you’ll reap a harvest (Galatians 6:9).
Post-mini-meltdown, I realized that my frustration almost clouded me from seeing my blessing and the reason God brought me to this verse. He didn’t do it to annoy me, but to confirm a promise to me through His word.
He was letting me know that I would no longer just be wishing Isaac’s increase to be mine. Isaac’s increase would be mine. It’s a Bamboo Season. And if you claim God’s word as truth, it will be yours too. Your waiting is not in vain. Your harvest is on its way.
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Have any thoughts or questions to share about this blog? Check out this Recap Podcast Episode here, hang with the THFFam and bring your thoughts and questions with you. Until next time!
Much Love,
Nyorh
