Lifetime Daily DevotionsSample

The Closet Plant

If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
John 7:37(b)-38

Do you know what a "closet plant" is? (The botanical name escapes me-as if it were ever on the tip of my tongue!) But it is a very dramatic plant. Most plants, when they need water, will tell you with a tiny whisper or a gentle clearing of the throat. Not so with the closet plant! You go into the room where he lives one morning and every leaf is almost touching the ground. He doesn't whisper. He shouts! "Help! I'm dying! I'm starving to death! Help!" (Definitely overkill.)

But an amazing transformation takes place-almost before your very eyes-when you pour some life-giving water into that dirt where the little bedraggled plant is standing and let him wiggle his toes in the soft, wet mud!

The key word in that paragraph is "life-giving." Without that drink, the closet plant would droop further and further and finally lay it's leaves down and die. Some of us are that way. We're wilted. We're drooping. We're dying. And what we need is some of the Life-giving water that Jesus offered to us!

My marriage was that way. There was no Life in my world. And our relationship was on its last "droop." My leaves were all splayed out on the carpet of my bedroom floor when I finally said, "Help! I'm dying! I'm starving to death!" I added another phrase however: "I can't do this, Lord. You're going to have to do it for me." Very gently He replied, "Thank you, Anabel. I'll do it all for you."

I've been holding tenaciously to those words ever since the night I called out to Him. (I use tenaciously often. It sounds like what it means: Persistent, stubborn, firm. I'm saying that I refuse to let go.) His life-giving water saved my life, my marriage, my family.

Some of us are too proud to confess that we're dangerously drooping. Some of us believe that we have to dig our own wells and scratch for our own water: "He expects ME to do this! What did He give me a brain for if I never use it?" And there are some of us who doubt that He will hear us or help us or rescue us. No. Maybe we are fragile closet plants, but if we stay close to Him, we won't ever need to get His attention by over-playing our part and shouting dramatically. He's right there, ready to refresh and rejuvenate and give us just what we need. You see He tenderly watches over His plants. He loves them.