Planting Stakes by Pamela McCormick

I went to talk with my pastor. I was discouraged and just needed a booster shot of faith to keep going. He prayed with me and then; he told me to plant some stakes. I didn’t understand, but I went home and googled why you plant stakes around tomatoes to get a good crop.

Well, I’ve never been fond of eating tomatoes on or in anything, but my tastes have changed recently. I saw them as slimy and yuck. That was my perspective. Stinking thinking, for sure. I had to develop a taste for them.

I read that when you grow tomatoes, the vine can get twisted and all out of whack if there were no stakes in the ground to hold them up. Yep, that was me all over. I had twisted thinking, and I was all out of whack. Do you know why you plant stakes for tomatoes? Because if you don’t, the tomatoes will fall to the ground and rot.

I had let some stinking thinking and poor attitudes stink up what is the truth about myself and my walk with my God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I then googled God and His attributes. Now, I was moving in a much better direction. When you start with God, you can’t help but hear the right stuff. Not that I go to God first thing in the morning always, but here is what I learned when I sought the Savior of my soul.

God is Sovereign. God is good all the time. God’s love never fails for me. God will never leave me or forsake me. God is with me always.

See, my thoughts were not lining up with who God was and is. I was imagining a God who was standing up in Heaven saying, “Okay, she messed up again. What am I going to do with her?”

But my pastor told me that’s not how God thinks of me at all. He’s loving and kind and always there for me, whether I’m crying, whether I feel alone, whether I can’t feel Him near, He is there. When no one else is there, God is.

A friend told me once that when you rely on your feelings, they will always land you in a hole somewhere. But when you rely on what God says about you, that you are His beloved and will never leave you, even in your worst moments, then you see the depth of His grace and love. It’s no longer you trying to be just right for God. It’s knowing that you are because of the blood of Jesus alone. And you worship the God of your salvation and bow to the One who gave you eyes to see.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in Heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1Peter 1:3-7 NIV)

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him, the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV)

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. (Isaiah 48:17 NKJV)

Pamela McCormick

Pam McCormick is an aspiring writer who recently retired from teaching in the public school and community college setting and still enjoys tutoring Algebra at the local library. Pam had a story, “The End,” published in Isothermal’s magazine, The Mentor, in December, 2014. Pam was also published in December 2016 in collaboration with eight other authors to write a devotional book, Ancient Stones Timeless Encouragement. Pam is a member of the Encouragers’ Christian Writers’ Group that meets monthly. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and tent camping with her husband, watching old time westerns, doing crossword puzzles and spending time with her daughter in Kentucky and her son, his wife and granddaughters, Merryn and Charlotte in Fuquay-Varina. Every other Sunday, she visits a nursing home and teaches a Bible study, feeling very blessed by God for this divine opportunity to share her love for her Savior. Pam has recently chosen to work on being more health conscious by eating a better diet and exercising more. Although tough times have come along her journey with God, she finds solace in the Truth that God is always there, just a prayer away, ready to help her get back up on her feet and start afresh. You can contact her at pjmc411@gmail.com.