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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We're glad to have you

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Speaker 2: listening with us. Today's topic is how to wait patiently

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Speaker 2: when we can't see growth. We'll return with the devotional

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Speaker 2: after a brief message from our sponsors before the bloom appears.

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Speaker 2: Written and read by Sarah Fraser. See how the farmer

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Speaker 2: waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is

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Speaker 2: patient with it. You also must be patient establish your hearts.

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Speaker 2: James five seven. I cannot wait for spring in our

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Speaker 2: area of the country. It doesn't usually come until around

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Speaker 2: March or April. We've even had the occasional snow at Easter.

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Speaker 2: But this year I'm holding out hope for warmer weather

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Speaker 2: coming sooner than later. If my life is filled with busyness,

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Speaker 2: I might miss the coming of spring. Many years ago,

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Speaker 2: when my children were young and life felt like an

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Speaker 2: endless winter because of depression, I would not notice spring

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Speaker 2: until it had already come. Growing older, I've been able

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Speaker 2: to notice the quiet coming of spring, and having a

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Speaker 2: garden and flowers helps to remind me of these things. Gardens, flowers,

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Speaker 2: and even my favorite tree in the front yard doesn't

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Speaker 2: grow overnight. Often it feels this way because we miss it.

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Speaker 2: But what a lesson we can can learn here as

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Speaker 2: we remember that in order for spring to come, soil

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Speaker 2: needs to be tended, seeds need to be buried, and

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Speaker 2: waiting is the theme of the coming of spring. Maybe

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Speaker 2: your life feels like an endless winter or the time

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Speaker 2: before the blooms. Although life has seasons of growth, we

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Speaker 2: do not need to get discouraged during times of planting

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Speaker 2: and waiting. James uses this exact picture to teach us

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Speaker 2: how to wait. See how the farmer. A farmer never

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Speaker 2: rushes the harvest. After tilling the soil and preparing the land,

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Speaker 2: the farmer then plants his seeds. He then buries them

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Speaker 2: deep into the ground. The next day. He does not

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Speaker 2: go out and look for a harvest. The farmer understands

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Speaker 2: the timing and knows he cannot force growth to happen.

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Speaker 2: Some things in our life we can speed up. We cannot. Growth,

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Speaker 2: especially spiritual growth, requires waiting. It forces us to trust

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Speaker 2: a process we might not understand. Circumstances in our life

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Speaker 2: are mostly out of our control. Yet God uses each

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Speaker 2: thing in our life as a way to grow us.

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Speaker 2: While the farmer waits, he is patient, waiting for the

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Speaker 2: supply of rain. Waiting is not a waste. The farmer

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Speaker 2: isn't idle. He tends to the fields, provides water when

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Speaker 2: he can, and works on his machines that will need

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Speaker 2: to be harvest. Waiting doesn't mean in activity. Patience is

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Speaker 2: not passivity. We keep praying, obeying, and trusting. The farmer

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Speaker 2: is faithful to do what he can and wait with patience,

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Speaker 2: and we two can be faithful. We do as we

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Speaker 2: can as we lean into God and realize that the

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Speaker 2: precious fruit that James talks about belongs to God and

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Speaker 2: he will make it grow. You also be patient. James

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Speaker 2: five eight says establish your hearts, for the coming of

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Speaker 2: the Lord is at hand. The word for establish means

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Speaker 2: to strengthen. As we wait, we shift inward. Waiting is

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Speaker 2: less about circumstances and more about the condition of the heart. Yes,

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Speaker 2: as we wait, we might feel weaker, and doubts will

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Speaker 2: enter our minds. Waiting tempts us to grow discouraged, but

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Speaker 2: strength comes when we remember God controls the harvest. Springtime

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Speaker 2: can be for us a picture of spiritual waiting. It

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Speaker 2: reminds us that planting comes before the fruit. Just because

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Speaker 2: nothing is visible doesn't mean nothing is happening. Roots are

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Speaker 2: the strongest part of the entire plant. God is often

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Speaker 2: doing deep root work in us before our fruit is visible.

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Speaker 2: Spring is for planting and tending, not harvesting. God calls

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Speaker 2: us to be patient with hope in seasons when the

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Speaker 2: fruit has yet to appear. The absence of fruit does

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Speaker 2: not mean growth isn't happening. Just like the farmer, trust

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Speaker 2: the seasons. We can too before the bloom, Hope is

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Speaker 2: working in your life. Choose hope. Choose to believe God

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Speaker 2: is working in your life even today. Intersecting faith and life.

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Speaker 2: Where are you waiting for fruit? What feels planted but

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Speaker 2: not yet blooming? How can you release the timeline? Stay

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Speaker 2: faithful and trust the Lord in this season? Additional reading

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Speaker 2: Galatians six', Nine psalm twenty seven thirteen through, Fourteen isaiah

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Speaker 2: forty thirty, One hebrews ten thirty five thirty, Six psalm

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Speaker 2: one twenty six five.

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Speaker 1: Six The Crosswalk devotional is a production Of Life audio

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