Christian Writers Circle

I Trust In Your Kingdom Come – Part I
by Kathleen Shore

A full year has passed since Father caught my attention with His creation that was crying out for me to know Him in a new and powerful way. Yet, I will never forget that one particular autumn morning and the way God drew me into new life.

In the quiet of my house with everyone still asleep, I stood with my coffee and gazed out the window. Dawn had just broken through, the fog lifted, and light was shed on all He wanted me to be awakened to. It was as though God said, “Good morning.” And creation responded back to Him, with a resounding orchestrated movement. The birds fluttering about with twigs in their beaks, putting the final touches of warmth on their nests…squirrels scampering here and there to find the best place to dig and hide their nut mix…while the leaves danced about in the trees and floated to the ground on a breeze to show their array of many colors… It was magnificent!

It truly was the perfect picture that readied me to say, “Yes” to Him.

As peace filled my heart, Father whispered clearly to my spirit, “Notice how all of My creation is not resisting or complaining about the coming seasons of dormancy in fall, giving way to the death of winter…but everything moves with My hand and My way, preparing themselves, trusting me with great expectation, knowing that the resurrection life of spring is sure to follow.”

In awe of His truth displayed right before my eyes, He then gently whispered again, “Do you trust Me this way? If you knew ahead of time, as creation knows, that I am bringing you into a season of dormancy that would give way to a season of death…like a pruning of the dead branches, and even some fruitful branches in your life, for the sake of greater fruit (see John 15:1, 2)…would you move with Me, as this picture of My creation does, that I have shown you this morning?”

Somehow, I ran to Him and shrunk back from Him all in the same moment. Clearly His word, sharper than any double-edged sword, had penetrated me…divided my soul from my spirit, and left me standing perfectly bare before Him (see Hebrew 4:12). I recognized my desire for more of Him, and I longed to respond to Him in the way He had shown me that morning. However, I just as clearly recognized my hands of ‘self’ grasping tightly to all that could potentially be stripped away.

In full view of the ugliness of ‘self’, I ran to Him…weeping. “Father,” I cried out, “Please do in me what You have shown me this morning. I see how perfectly You take care of, provide for, and protect all that You have made down to the smallest animal. I want my life to declare, “Will You not do even more for me, than these! For have You not already given Your Son to die that I might have eternal life with You?”

In full love of me, a year later, He brought me into a springtime of new resurrection life, by Way of a season of dormancy and death.

                                                              John 12:24-26 NIV
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”