Consider the Lilies

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 2 PETER 3:18

Critics of the higher life teaching often said that it left no room for growth. If a Christian could enter into rest by a single act of faith, what was left to do? Had these teachers not abolished the long, slow work of sanctification? Hannah Whitall Smith answered the charge directly in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. Entering the life of trust, she said, is not the end but the beginning. No one believed in growth more than she did. What she denied was that most Christians were actually growing.

Twenty-five years of growing

She told of urging a group of Christians to take a definite step of faith, when an intelligent woman interrupted her with what she thought was a decisive reply: but I believe in growing in grace. How long had she been growing? About twenty-five years. And how much more devoted to the Lord was she now than when she began? The woman was honest. She feared she was not nearly as devoted as at the start.

Hannah’s diagnosis was a single phrase: “they are trying to grow into grace, instead of in it.” They are like a rosebush planted in a stony path in the hope that it will grow its way into the flower bed. It will wither first. Or like Israel in the wilderness, walking for forty years and ending no nearer the land than at the start — indeed, with a river to cross that had not been there at Kadesh.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. JEREMIAH 17:7–8

To grow in grace, one must first be planted in it. And grace, she says, is not a dry doctrine of unmerited favour but the boundless love of God poured out without measure. To be planted in grace is to live in that love, to steep oneself in it, and to trust it to order all things well. Once planted there, the soul grows more in a month than in years in any other soil.

How the lilies grow

Her text is the Sermon on the Mount.

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. MATTHEW 6:28–29

A lily does not strain to grow. It does not stretch its leaves or try to manage the clouds. It grows because it is alive and planted, and the sun and rain do their work. She asked her readers to imagine a child so anxious about his height that he rigged up ropes and pulleys to stretch himself every day. He would waste his youth and add nothing to his stature. That, she said, is exactly how many Christians go about their sanctification — wearing themselves out with effort that achieves nothing.

So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. MARK 4:26–27

Her counsel is to put our growing into God’s hands as completely as we have put everything else there. Our part is to abide in the Vine, to keep the sky clear between our souls and the Sun of Righteousness, and to let the Gardener do His work in His own way and time.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. JOHN 15:4

A potato as gladly as a rose

Part of letting God be the Gardener is letting Him choose what He grows. We are not to pick our own soil, set our own borders or demand our own seasons. “If He wills it, let Him grow a potato as gladly as a rose.”

She knew this from experience. In The God of All Comfort she tells how, as a plain-spoken and energetic young woman, she envied a sister who looked and sounded so saintly, and often complained to God for making her as she was. Then she read a sentence in an old book telling her to be content to be what God had made her, and saw that if God had made her a potato vine, she must be satisfied to grow potatoes and not pine to be a rosebush. Much restless striving is simply refusing to be the plant God has sown.

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 1 CORINTHIANS 3:6–7

Growth and discipline

One caution. The picture of effortless growth is true about the source of growth — it is God’s life in us, not our straining. It is not true that growth needs no attention. Scripture also speaks of exercise and practice.

But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 1 TIMOTHY 4:7

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. HEBREWS 5:14

A lily does nothing to make itself grow, but a gardener does a great deal: he waters, weeds and prunes. Hannah’s own counsel to expose ourselves to God’s presence, to bask in His love and keep the sky clear, requires daily choices — to open the Bible, to pray, to gather with His people, to obey. Those are not the ropes and pulleys; they are how the plant turns its face to the sun. The mistake she was attacking was not discipline but anxious self-effort that puts its trust in itself.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. PSALM 1:3

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Compare yourself honestly with five years ago. Have you grown in love and devotion, or only in knowledge and activity?

2. Where have you been using ropes and pulleys — anxious effort — to make yourself grow?

3. Make the step: put your growing into God’s hands, and give up measuring it daily.

4. Keep the sky clear: name anything that stands between your soul and God’s light, and remove it.

5. Is there a way in which God has made you a potato vine while you have longed to be a rose? Thank Him for what He has made you.

A PRAYER

Lord, I have tried to grow into grace by my own straining, and I am no nearer than when I began.

Plant me in Your love, and let me grow there as the lilies grow, without anxiety.

I give You my growing, my soil and my seasons. Make of me whatever plant You please, and let me be glad of it.

Keep me turned toward You, and make me fruitful in my season, for Your glory and not my own. Amen.