The Importance of Tending to Your Garden: Experiencing the Beauty of Spending Time With God Daily.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15 ESV)

Today as I was working outside pulling weeds and fertilizing flower beds, I had a thought, isn't my yard situation just like our walk with Jesus? There were so many weeds all over the yard and garden because I hadn't pulled weeds all winter and I felt a bit overwhelmed, so I asked my best friend for help and thankfully, she graciously said yes. She didn't chastise me for being lazy, she simply said yes because she loves me. I was enjoying the break from yard work all winter but oh what a mess the yard had become since I wasn't tending my garden every day. Now I must do so much work preparing the yard and garden for the spring. Isn't that just like our walk with Jesus? If we do not tend to the garden of our hearts and lives each day, things can become a mess. We need to ask our best friend Jesus to help because we can be easily overwhelmed by the mess we have made of our lives. Still, if we would faithfully tend our hearts and souls with the gardening tools given to us in God's word, there would be less work to maintain the garden. The cleanup doesn't happen overnight, it's a process. The mess didn't happen overnight therefore it will not be fixed overnight. Just as the order of seed, time, and harvest, so in good time, you will see everything in your life in order. The seed of God's word planted in your heart will bring forth abundant fruit so don't give up, keep sowing and pulling out weeds. Don't take off any days of spending time with Jesus. In Him, there is fullness of joy. Read your word every day, pray, and talk with God. Cultivate God’s word in your heart. Don’t wait a whole season and neglect your relationship with God. He is waiting for you; He desires an intimate relationship with you. He loves you dearly. You see, God is always taking care of us down to the smallest detail. He is aware of when to trim and when to plant seeds, just like a gardener. He doesn't seem far away or unaffected by our suffering. He's been there the entire time, transforming ashes into a breathtaking image of His son Jesus. God sees you and addresses you as His beloved child. He is likewise working everything out for your good. He wants to meet you precisely where you are. I sincerely pray that you will feel the splendor, intimacy, and closeness of the gardener today.

A Few Garden Scriptures:

Matthew 15:13 ESV

He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

Mark 4

The Parable of the Sower

Jeremiah 4:3 ESV

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,and sow not among thorns.

Jeremiah 31:12 ESV

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil,and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.

Psalm 92:12-15 ESV

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Psalm 1 ESV

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.