Welcome to our new Blog!
June 2025 - Written by Amy Davies
We are so glad you are here, willing to take time to learn more about our new branch of Sharing the Journey! Our hope is that the Nourish devotional and Flourish blog will be an additional tool to help keep you engaged with our overarching theme for the year - Jesus as our source. So how did it all begin?
Why Nourish and Flourish?
In a time of prayer and contemplation around a Sharing the Journey blog, these words burst to mind, as if hand delivered by God. Having attended the Sharing the Journey “Roots” sessions last year, I recalled a video shared of a plant growing deep roots, similar to the tree in our logo. As a keen gardener, this reminded me of pictures God has generously given me over the past few years around the significance of plants in relation to His Word, as a metaphor for our own spiritual growth.
What do plants so desperately need to grow? Nourishment - both down in the soil in which their roots form, and also from above the ground, with water and sunlight.
To be nourished is to be provided with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition. As Christians, we can be nourished in various ways - by resting in God’s presence, through times of prayer, reading His life-giving Word, fellowship with others in church and small groups, worship and praise.
Yet in our ever-changing world in modern life, how easy it is to become malnourished in a time of constant pressure, deadlines, the demands of social media; the anxiety of news headlines - wars, famine and natural disasters. Strains on our health - both physical and mental, and the dictation of society to earn more, do more, be more. No wonder so many are overwhelmed!
Our spirits are crying out to be fed, and amongst the many ways we can satisfy this longing, our hope is that as you receive Nourish via email, you will have the opportunity to take a couple of minutes out of the busyness of life and find food that will replenish you. Nourish will begin with a promise, followed by a brief reflection, and perhaps a challenge to hold in your heart for days to come. For there is no growth without challenge!
God once showed me a picture of the importance of challenge - the dead heading of a plant. In life we often live on auto-pilot, following the same old routines, barely time to stop and think. Such was my experience when I ventured back out to my garden last Summer and found my dahlias covered in dead heads. God showed me that some areas of my life, just like the deadheads, were no longer living. I’d kept them attached to me, clinging on for far too long because they were familiar, almost comfortable, but they were sapping me of the energy I needed to move forward, preventing new growth and losing the beauty God intended me to hold. God told me to remove the deadheads of my past, once and for all. They no longer had a place on the plant, no purpose remained in keeping them. He asked me to bring them to Him, where He would take them, and I could let go.
We deadhead plants to keep them looking beautiful, to enable pro-longed and new growth and to prevent wasted energy. So I encourage you to embrace any challenge - in those moments of discomfort as the Spirit may stir you, be willing to open your heart and mind to Him. God loves us, we are His children, made in His image, and He wants to guide us towards what is best for us.
For those of you who perhaps have more time available, or simply wish to go deeper, you will find a link to Flourish, which will take you directly to our Blog page. To flourish means to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, and my hope for us all is that by studying and unpacking the word of God through my own personal reflection, we will be inspired to our own quiet contemplation and challenged in new ways to apply our faith to daily living.
The Source
We all live busy lives in one way or another, and it’s possible that we end up leaning on our own strength, or look elsewhere for the spiritual nourishment, as humans, we so desperately need. Whether we look to physical food for comfort, TV, social media, family, friends or partners, exercise or money - none of these things are negative on their own, but none can sustain us either. I know for myself, it is far easier to aimlessly scroll through my phone than to pick up my Bible at times. God absolutely loves us right where we are, He is a God of love, grace and mercy. But he also loves us too much to leave us there. He longs to see us receive his nourishment, to flourish as we delve deeper into His Word and grow in awe and understanding of who He really is.
In 2025 our focus will be “Who is our Source?” - seeking to deepen our relationship with Christ as the foundation of our faith. Guided by the words of Colossians 2:6-7 we strive to build lives that are deeply rooted in Him.
With this as our inspiration, we hope to take you on a journey as we break down this powerful verse, in a way that helps us all to find ways to root ourselves in Him. With nothing more valuable than drawing strength from His living Word, we will explore New Testament encounters of women with the man Himself, studying Jesus’ character and promise of love and acceptance, the impact this had on their lives, and its implications for our own.
We are all walking our own individual path, there is no room for comparison here, simply love and acceptance for where you are now, and a longing to enable you to flourish even more - a desire for us all!
We hope you will join us on this adventure, with excited anticipation as we wait and see what God will do.
