As I looked out of my patio door’s I noticed a riot of color. It was bright purple with white edges. I realized that it was an old orchid that I had placed outside on a tree. When I ran outside to see if it really was my old orchid, what I saw took my breath away! It was blooming and flourishing, even though I had forgotten about it. You see, when I put it out in the tree, I thought this plant is finished, it’s not doing well and all the effort that I’ve put into it has been in vain. Those words echoed in my head as I stood in my yard and saw this beautiful orchid. I had written it off and thought that my efforts had been in vain but, it seems as if God had other ideas.
This concept of “doing it in vain” is prevalent amongst us, isn’t it? We believe something is going to happen, and when it takes years to happen, or it doesn’t seem to be possible, we think that we’ve been faithful in vain, for no good reason. In reading our bible, we see many occasions when it seemed that a person did it all for nothing. During this period of time, as we count the omer, we can look back at the last Passover that Yeshua celebrated and see an example of this kind of experience. In Matthew 26:31-35 it says, “Then Yeshua said to them, ‘You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Yeshua said to him, ‘Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.” All of the disciples voiced their commitment to Yeshua but, look at what happens when the crowd comes to seize Him in Matthew 26:55, “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” Every one of the disciples, including Peter, left Yeshua when it looked like the hope that they had invested in Yeshua being the Messiah was now perhaps “in vain”.
We see an example earlier in Matthew that demonstrates our inability to understand God’s plans and His purposes. In Matthew 16:21-23 it says, “From that time Yeshua began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”’ Peter didn’t understand the greater plan that God had set in motion. He was reacting from an emotional standpoint and not understanding that God had a plan in place that was so massive that he could not even conceive of it. Don’t we all behave like this? When we are waiting, tired, thinking it is never going to happen and shrugging our shoulders with despair, we are all like Peter. Notice that in verse 23, Yeshua says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” When we think that what we have done for the kingdom of God is in vain, we are actually in cahoots with Satan. We are a hindrance to God and His plans and are acting in the flesh and not with the spirit. One of our problems that we have is that we believe that the results matter, that we can control the results, and that God needs us to be successful! The truth is just like Peter, even when God tells us what the plan is, we find it difficult to ride out the difficulties. Those difficulties will discourage us and make us believe that He won’t come through, but He will. It may not look exactly how we would have designed it but, He will be faithful.
The really good news is that even if we fail (and we often will) God gives us examples of other who have failed to be faithful but, have been given another chance.
When the disciples scattered, and then Yeshua was crucified, they were discouraged but, after the resurrection He appeared to them. Yeshua didn’t give up on them. In fact He opened up their minds, gave them a mission and gave them a promise of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 24:45, we find these points, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”’
As we are in the final days of the counting of the omer, let us remember that just like the disciples waited (even though they had struggled in the past) we need to wait, leaving the results to Him. When He has asked us to participate in His plans, He will accomplish that which are His purposes.