I have been doing a Bible Study about dying to self and living for Christ. Isn’t that the ultimate goal? When we are saved–we need to let our old self die and work each day to live for Christ. To seek His will above all else.
It reminds me of springtime and getting the garden ready. It’s good to till up your garden spot, then let the weeds come back and burn them off. It’s a controlled burn that kills off the weeds before they have a chance to take root.
I have felt a very strong pull to cultivate my garden this year. I have let some weeds take over certain areas of life and God has been convicting me to prune myself. To become more of Him and less of me.
Satan works hard to keep the weeds growing in our garden. He can take our sinful thoughts & actions and makes them look pretty. Just like all the goldenrods covering farmland in Kentucky right now. It’s beautiful to see, but they are weeds! The farmers are about to spray the fields, kill the weeds and plant the seeds.
Satan is the master manipulator. Jeremiah 17:9 says “the human heart is the most deceitful of all things; and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is”. WOAH! That’s harsh!
BUT if you read a couple verses before and after you see that Jeremiah says that when we put our trust in God He can guide our hearts, search our hearts and cleanse our hearts. God is the answer to keep the weeds out of our garden.
Next we learn in Mark 8: 34-37 that to follow Him we have to deny ourselves. We have to stop walking around in the weeds. Time to prune our garden and let God determine what we grow. To experience the abundant life God has for us we must let go of our old sinful ways and follow Him.
In Colossians 3 Paul breaks it down into two parts for us. One is all the sinful things we need to remove from our garden and the other are the Godly things we need to add to our garden. Verse 5 begins by telling us to put to death our sinful nature. This is not a one and done thing we do when we are saved. We are to be constantly pruning our garden. We must keep killing the sin that springs up in our garden. When we take a break from pruning our garden those weeds weave through our garden and take over in the blink of an eye.
Verses 12-15 show us what we need to always grow in our garden– “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.“
Romans 12:1 tells us to give our bodies to God as living sacrifices. When we do this it is the ultimate way to worship God. Each time we live for the Lord over our worldly desires we are worshiping Him. We will always battle between God and worldly things, but each time we choose God we are worshiping him. Doesn’t that sound amazing! I imagine myself in the garden praising Him.
And that brings us walking by the spirit. Galatians 5: 16-26 is what I have been diving into lately. I must share that I love the passion translation of these verses. Paul again gives us two lists. One is acts of the flesh and one is attributes of living a Godly life. The two lives are not compatible. If we are walking in the spirit we know this battle well. In verse 16 Paul reminds us that when we let the Holy Spirit guide our lives we won’t give into our sinful desires as much.
There will still be battles playing out in our garden, but the spirit gives us the upper hand by convicting us of sin, strengthening us to resist temptation and pursue Christ’s path over our own.
My study Bible describes walking by the spirit as walking with a friend, but the friend is the God. When he is walking alongside us we tend to not want to carry out worldly desires.
Being me I see it like this—I am the garden and in the center of my garden is Jesus. Jesus is my scarecrow. He is always there—his watch never ends. He is always on guard and ready to alert me of danger. And when I am intune with Him the enemy doesn’t stand a chance of getting my garden.
Now back to those list. In verses 19-21 we learn about acts of the flesh. The list includes sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography, chasing things instead of God, hatred towards others, senseless arguments, resentment, temper tantrums, angry quarrels, only thinking of yourself, being in love with your own opinions, being envious of the blessings of others, murder, uncontrolled addictions and wild parties. Ouch! I see some things I need to weed. How about you?
Here is another big OUCH– the end of verse 21 says “ Haven’t I already warned you that those who use their freedom for these things WILL NOT inherit the kingdom of God”. I grew up believing once saved always saved, but Paul clearly says do these things and you aren’t going to spend eternity with God in heaven.
This gave me pause! I think we all have had senseless arguments, been envious of someone or haven’t been the nicest to someone. Let’s be real, I have been to a few wild parties in my life!
My study bible says that people living that sort of life are a slave to sin and not living by the spirit. If we choose to live a life where we are continually sinning and not seeking repentance it is clear we are not a true follower of God. BUT when we truly trust God and desire to walk with Him we do not have to worry. Of course we will fall short sometimes, but weeding and pruning shows him how much we desire to be with Him for eternity.
Okay let’s get back to cultivating our Garden! Paul gives us a 2nd list–attributes of living a Godly life. Verses 22-23 in the passion translation are just so sweet…
“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is
divine love in all its varied expressions,
Joy that overflows
Peace that subdues
Patience that endures
Kindness in action
A life full of virtue
Faith that prevails
Gentleness of heart and
Strength of spirit.”
Wow! What a marvelous garden we can have with these attributes in the forefront of our lives. Let’s take a look at each one…
Divine love…loving God and loving people are two of the most important things we can do in life. A love that is free of judgement. Jesus loved and died for the very people that crucified Him. We need to love like that.
Joy that overflows… Paul connects joy & gratefulness to prayer. When we are in constant prayer & communication with God we can find true joy no matter our circumstances. A joy that overflows in all parts of our lives.
Peace that subdues… When we are rooted in God we can experience this kind of peace. It’s a piece that says I trust you with everything Lord. Just like the birds that don’t worry where their next meal is coming from and plants in the garden that know Jesus will feed them.. They just know the Lord will provide.
Patience that endures.. Patience controls our responses. Patience is having steadfastness, endurance, perseverance and consistency. Patience says take a deep breath (or two) and then respond.
Kindness in action… I read that kindness was patience taking to the next level. We choose to go out of our way to speak and live with love.
A life full of virtue… we can show others how good our God is by being so so good to those around us. Just like Jesus was when he walked this earth.
Faith that prevails.. All we need is faith the size of a mustard seed, but think what he can do when we have the faith of Abraham. Can you imagine the faith it took to be willing to sacrifice your child. The people around you are watching. They want to see what we do in a trial or difficult time. Be faithful because God might be using us to turn a heart of stone into a heart for God.
Gentleness of heart.. A few synonyms for gentle are soothing, mellow, soft, mild, delicate and light. This makes me think of my favorite comfy blankie. When Jesus walked this earth he was all of these things for everyone he met. We need to be a comfy blanket of gentleness for others.
Strength of spirit… (SELF CONTROL) we all face temptation–even Jesus did. Jesus knew his purpose and He walked in his purpose. This helped him have self-control to say no to temptation. He knew his purpose was more important than temporary pleasure. As we battle against overeating, gossipping or whatever sin we struggle with, let’s remember to lean into the Holy Spirit. Let him guide us away from sin and gain control over the enemy.
Here we are at the end of this devotion and feel like I said a whole lot.
The main takeaway is that we can never get lazy.
- Our gardens must constantly be weeded to keep sin at bay.
- We must never stop watering our garden: Soak up His Word to keep our gardens flourishing.
- We need to feed our garden good fertilizer: Spend time in prayer with our father in heaven.
- We need to constantly be cultivating our garden: Live by the fruits of spirit
- Every garden has to be harvested: Take all those good fruits and share them with others. Take those bad fruits and send them back to hell.
- Make sure JESUS IS THE SCARECROW in the center of our gardens. Let us always sing our praises to him for he is the ultimate partner and guardian.
Faith to the Farm 