My favorite flowers are pink bubble gum petunias. They are beautiful, prolific and hardy, blooming from early Spring up until the first frost, as you can see in this picture on the right.

But this year was different. About the middle of August, the blossoms began to diminish and then disappeared altogether as you can see in the  middle  picture! Lots of green, no color.

So, I went to the place where I’d gotten the plants and asked about this. “Well,” the clerk said, “We’ve had so  much rain this year that all the fertilizer has been washed away.  Just give them this fertilizer and the blossoms will come back shortly.” So I did that and in the picture below you can see what happened. The reappearance ot the blossoms was almost like magic!

This made me think about “spiritual fertilizer,” the importance of having a regular quiet time. I have found that many Christians (including full time workers) do not have a regular quiet time, or it is very brief. They are lacking their “spiritual fertilizer” and the result is a lack of “spiritual flowers.”

Proverbs 8:34 came to mind, where Wisdom says, “Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” Note the word “daily.” And where can we get wisdom but from the Word? Then in  the next verse is this encouragement: “For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD.”

So let’s listen at the door of wisdom everyday, get our spiritual fertilizer and blossom for the Lord!