You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. Ezekiel 16:17

When my boys were young, we had three apple trees in the backyard. Which was fun, until we had harvested all we wanted and the fruit began to fall off the tree. Then, there was a lot of raking and shoveling to remove the unused fruit from around the tree before it began to attract pests. We usually took off several little wagon loads of rotting fruit to the back of the property to feed the deer. The fruit on the ground wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was going bad because we weren’t using it. We had to remove it because if we had let it lie on the ground underneath the tree some bad things could have happened: One, obviously, pests would have come along, and many of those pests have stingers that would have hurt my boys; Two, Rotting fruit under a tree can introduce sickness to the tree itself, significantly lessening the harvest of the next year, or even possibly killing the tree. Even though, it seems like a good idea to add organic material to the ground underneath the tree, allowing the rot to occur there actually promotes all kinds of sicknesses and can eventually even create a situation where a tree forms no fruit.

America in general and American Christians in particular have allowed unharvested blessings to lie fallow. Our freedoms, unappreciated, are being taken, our children, unloved, are not being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We have plenty, and instead of giving part of our plenty to the Lord, we set about to gather more and more, spending our weekends doing anything that comes along, putting church attendance and serving our Lord at the bottom of our list, as something to do when nothing else better comes along. Our children grow up and serve the Lord less than we did, and we’re shocked at the lack of morality in our world. There are countries around the world in which people are willing to die or face jail to worship the Lord with fellow believers, we don’t show up if it’s raining, or if there’s a ballgame, or if someone said something that hurt our feelings.

Believe me, I get it. I’ve used all of those excuses and many more to avoid a church service, or just take an opportunity to sit in my recliner. When I would never have missed a night out with my girlfriends, or allowed my kids to miss a sports practice, I would allow a headache to keep me from church. In the process of the Lord opening my eyes to the depth of His love for me, I also realized that the church services are precious little gems that make my week run better. They give me something to reflect on later in the week. I believe the Word is true and that when two or three of us are gathered together in His name, He is there in the midst of us. If you struggle to feel the Spirit in a service, the first place to look is within yourself. Are you prayed up? Are you in a right relationship with the Lord, are there things you need to seek forgiveness for? Are you looking and listening for Him, or are you looking for a reason to stay home next time?

Why do we continually put service to the Lord at the bottom of our list and then bemoan the fact that He isn’t working in our lives? If you would just give Him even a small spot in your life. A place that was completely set aside for Him, I promise He will show up and show out. Pay attention, give Him a little and watch Him work. When you begin to see Him working in your life, it will become easier and easier to give Him a large place.

Don’t allow God’s blessings to lie unharvested and rot under the tree. When we do that, we begin to see fewer and fewer blessings in our lives, and mistakenly place the blame on God, when the reason for the problem lies with us.