Often when we look at a situation in our life, its appearance seems overwhelming and too daunting to overcome. Our mind begins the dance of reason as we tell ourselves that what lies before us is too much for us. As my husband and I stood looking at our vegetable garden the other day we felt this inner struggle. The weeds had literally taken over the garden path and all of the raised beds. Even considering the thought of taking on this task was depressing us. But, we determined in our minds to start with one corner and just give it a try.
I took the spade and loosened the edges of one planter and began to pull on the garden invaders. To our surprise the weeds pulled out with ease and before we knew it the first bed was cleaned out. Together we went from bed to bed and were amazed at how what we thought was going to be horrible turned out to be laughingly easy to accomplish. In God's humorous way He began to speak to my heart about the lesson buried in my garden.
He spoke to me about the similarities between the garden soil and my hearts condition. If our hearts have good, rich soil that has been prepared by God's Holy Spirit then no matter what Satan tries to plant there it will only be an illusion of daunting fear. Satan can only try to scare us with overwhelming circumstances, he has no power to actually overwhelm us! As children of the living God, we can, in reality, only be overwhelmed by God's beautiful power! It's all determined by where we choose to gaze.
When our hearts are rich with God's truth, the weeds of Satan's deceptions cannot take root, they can only give the appearance of fear. Each day the enemy scatters his lies, yet, when we DAILY feed our minds and hearts with God's truth through His Word, fellowship and prayer, we tend the garden of our souls so that the fake fears cannot grow.
After eradicating all the weeds in our garden it became crystal clear what the purpose of the garden was. Apart from spiritually weeding our hearts garden, we cannot know our true purpose in this life. The weeds of lies and deception crowd out our true purpose. It is imperative to weed out our minds and hearts daily and then let God's Holy Spirit plant His garden of fruits in us. If our gardens are not tended then the weeds of our enemy will take over. Our lives will produce, despair, confusion, fear, selfishness, depression...BUT, if we commit ourselves to tend our gardens then God will plant love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Life is not easy but the lessons in our toil are priceless if we seek God's truth. Weeds will always come but they can only take over if our soil is untended. Let us not be defined by Satan's fake fears but let the world see the fruits of our Living God displayed in the gardens of our lives!
Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Matthew 7:15-20, "They will know you by your fruits."
I took the spade and loosened the edges of one planter and began to pull on the garden invaders. To our surprise the weeds pulled out with ease and before we knew it the first bed was cleaned out. Together we went from bed to bed and were amazed at how what we thought was going to be horrible turned out to be laughingly easy to accomplish. In God's humorous way He began to speak to my heart about the lesson buried in my garden.
He spoke to me about the similarities between the garden soil and my hearts condition. If our hearts have good, rich soil that has been prepared by God's Holy Spirit then no matter what Satan tries to plant there it will only be an illusion of daunting fear. Satan can only try to scare us with overwhelming circumstances, he has no power to actually overwhelm us! As children of the living God, we can, in reality, only be overwhelmed by God's beautiful power! It's all determined by where we choose to gaze.
When our hearts are rich with God's truth, the weeds of Satan's deceptions cannot take root, they can only give the appearance of fear. Each day the enemy scatters his lies, yet, when we DAILY feed our minds and hearts with God's truth through His Word, fellowship and prayer, we tend the garden of our souls so that the fake fears cannot grow.
After eradicating all the weeds in our garden it became crystal clear what the purpose of the garden was. Apart from spiritually weeding our hearts garden, we cannot know our true purpose in this life. The weeds of lies and deception crowd out our true purpose. It is imperative to weed out our minds and hearts daily and then let God's Holy Spirit plant His garden of fruits in us. If our gardens are not tended then the weeds of our enemy will take over. Our lives will produce, despair, confusion, fear, selfishness, depression...BUT, if we commit ourselves to tend our gardens then God will plant love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Life is not easy but the lessons in our toil are priceless if we seek God's truth. Weeds will always come but they can only take over if our soil is untended. Let us not be defined by Satan's fake fears but let the world see the fruits of our Living God displayed in the gardens of our lives!
Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Matthew 7:15-20, "They will know you by your fruits."
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