Plants need water and light to survive. Some die immediately when those things are withheld. Sometimes the death is gradual. The flowers stop blooming or the leaves start to shrink and wither. This is a sign that the plant needs attention. At that point you have a choice-you can water the plant and expose it to more light or you can ignore it, and let it die.
This is not unlike our relationship with God and the things He has promised. God plants a seed in us, and we are excited at the prospect of what this seed will bring. We spend time helping that seed grow into what God intends for it to be. We worship, pray and read His word to assure the seed grows. Without our attention to the seed, it has the potential to get lost in all the things going on around us. We get busy and forget to give the seed the attention we did when it was first planted. It is then we forget what that promise was in the beginning. The seed begins to die. If it is only starting to wither, you can bring it back to life by watering it. God’s promises work the same for us. We can bring those promises back to life by returning to worship, prayer, and reading His word with the same enthusiasm we had at the beginning. John 15:4 says,”
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.15.4.NIV
We can survive the waiting time to the promise. We will only truly thrive by remaining in God, so he can bring about the fruit of the promise.
Nae's Notes 