You're Gonna Need a Bigger Pot

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)

Take an apple seed from the next apple you eat.

Plant it in a little pot on your desk.

How long until you are eating apples?

Just guess. You don’t have to be a botanist. A year? Five years? Ten years?

Well here’s your answer. Never.

You will never be eating apples from the seed planted in the little pot on your desk.

Why not?

Because it doesn’t matter how great the seed is. It doesn’t matter if it gets the perfect amount of water and the perfect amount of sunlight and it’s in the perfect soil. You will never be eating apples from it.

Why not?

Because the pot is too little. It can’t grow a proper root base so the growth is stunted.

And that’s where your Christian walk might be right now.

Stunted.

Stuck in a tiny pot.

Unable to bear much fruit.

So what can you do?

You’re gonna need a bigger pot.

What does that mean?

It means you’re going to have to spend more time with God.

In John 15 Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

What does it mean to “abide” in Jesus? It means to live with Him, to stay with Him, to spend time with Him, to walk with Him.

Are you spending time with God? Do you have a prayer time, a devotional time, a Bible study time? Or let me call it this: abiding time.

The root system of our spiritual life is our relationship with God. When that root system is strong “below ground” so to speak, then we will quite naturally bear the fruit of the Spirit above ground.

But if your pot is too small, in other words, if you aren’t spending much time with God, then the root system of your spiritual life becomes “root bound,” and your growth is stunted.

So how to unstunt your growth?

Spend more time with God.

I teach what I call The Matthew 6:6 Principle. Follow this principle and your spiritual life will grow.

In short, it says this, “Go into your room. Shut your door. Pray to your Father.”

This means get alone with God, shut out the distractions, and commune with Him. Talk to Him. Pray for things. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Open up the Bible and ask Him to teach you.

All of these things while committing time alone with God are going to build your root base. You are doing the root work, and your tree is going to grow and bear much fruit over time.

So if you find your walk with God stunted or stuck or even going backwards, well, you’re gonna need a bigger pot. You’re going to have to increase your time with God.

You need to nail down a time and a place to regularly, consistently draw near to God, knowing that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Your next level of growth is right here, ready for you!

But to get it, you’re gonna need a bigger pot.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.