What is your flower garden like today? Are your pots of flowers blooming or is your ground fallow once again? Is it difficult to work once again? Have you given God ample opportunity to work a work in your life’s garden yet?

Our New Planted Gardens

In a HFC Heart-to-Heart Devotional Study entitled Seeds of Plenty, which detailed the parable of the sower and the seeds from Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8, we talked about the various types of seeds we should plant in our particular gardens, what they represent in our lives, and where we choose to plant them. They are important parables for our lives either as new Christians, “ho hum” Christians, spiritual (so-called) giants, wayward Christians, or Christians who truly want ALL God has for them. (You and the Lord Jesus know where you fit in this picture). We do know this. The seed is God’s Word, the Sower is our wonderful Lord, the ground (or earthen pot) and the soil within it is the condition of our hearts. Take a few minutes to go through that Heart-to-Heart talk with God before you delve any further in our garden discussion. Make sure you have you garden manuals.

Once you spend some time in your devotions take a few more minutes to open up the little seed packets below...

Let’s do some organizing --

SEED PACKET 1: Write down how the WORD OF GOD come to you in the first place. ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ SEED PACKET 2: Did you hear the WORD OF GOD from someone or did you discover it for yourself? ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ SEED PACKET 3: Did you go looking for the WORD OF GOD? If so, what caused you to do so? ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ SEED PACKET 4: Tell about the person who came to YOU specifically to enlighten you about the treasures of the WORD OF GOD. Why do you think they selected you? ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

Is your pot or plot still uncultivated and full of weeds so that you are finding your seeds among thorns, or do you work diligently at keeping the weeds rooted out by studying and praying and fellowshipping as much as you can with a body of believers?

Have you planned your little garden wisely and planted the word of God deeply in your heart so that it is now being nurtured in good soil, pliable, and easy to work with, open for growth?

The test of our Christian walks always goes back to that same parable of the sower and seeds, which I believe we should review on a regular basis. In fact, a good way to start each week with the Lord, after saying our good mornings, and offering up our unconditional praise is to ask for that renewal and cross reference issue as to the condition of our hearts … The Lord Jesus will graciously let us know, and then He will let us know what to do about it.

Remember Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8

Our Gardens Maintained

What is the process of good garden maintenance? Look at the verses written to us in Titus.

This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men (women). (14) And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.
Titus 3:8, 14

When it comes to maintaining our gardens — persistence is the key.

Our Gardens in Bloom

Okay now...

• We have pruned away the bad gunk and tossed it in the recycle bin..
• We have tilled our foundations and made sure our potting soil is flexible and easy to work with...
• We have prayed over it...
• We have allowed the Lord to drench it with the dew of his Holy Spirit...
• We have studied our “Garden Manuals” thoroughly...
• We have sown good seed (God’s word) into our gardens...
• We have maintained good works...

What can we expect now -- And what about those nasty bugs?

• Bug 1: They attack those who have had wilderness walks and have been humbled more often than not. These attacking bugs do not even go into hiding. All can see them!
• Bug 2: They attack those who might have had too many lonely spells in their walks and often want to give up on the growing process. These bugs can stunt the growth of the leaves and branches if we let them.
• Bug 3: They attack those who feel like their gardens are more like deserts and often find it too complicated to get a whole lot out of the Word after reading it, and when they pray they find it difficult to feel the presence of the Lord... a real dry/brittle spell. These bugs bore their way down to the roots of the plant and try to suffocate the life completely out of it.

(There are remedies to all these bug attacks!)

Turn to Isaiah 35:1, 2

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

What is the word saying to us here? Let’s take a close look.

“The wilderness and solitary place” takes us back to that description of those wilderness experiences, and lonely and dry spells.

• Bug 1 remedy: Realize that everyone gets these wilderness bugs. Everyone has a time when they feel a need for spiritual renewal. These bugs come and go but are harmless to the plant itself unless left to fester. (This is when the plant or ground wallows in self-pity during the bug-assault!)

“Shall be glad FOR THEM” -- What does the next part of that verse mean?

God was showing Israel that through the trials Israel had just experienced He was ready then to pour out a blessing, just as He is ready to pour out a blessing for you and me today.

• Bug 2 remedy: By allowing the presence of the Holy Spirit (that dew of heaven) to flow over, under, and through the ground whether parched ground or damp will help to drown out the bug. Prayer, God’s Word, Fellowship, Praise…best nourishment ever!

When you are dry and parched, you cannot WAIT for that blessing to come!
But are you ready to receive His blessing? Ever thought about it that way? God WANTS to bless us!!! We have to open our arms to receive the blessings HE wants to pour out on us!!!

Trust the Lord to come through for you.

• Bug 3 remedy: These are the tough bugs because the plant and ground cannot see nor feel them. Everyone is attacked by this bug as well. The only remedy is to lean even more upon the Father and not on SELF. The Almighty God is the only one who can deliver completely from these bugs who try to suffocate life right out of everyone’s garden.

Even when your garden appears to be growing nicely, ALL blessings are welcome from on high!

The next portion of scripture says, “The desert (your desert) shall blossom as the rose”

Side Note: In the Hebrew, the rose mentioned here is really a bulbous flower full of fragrance -- something like a narcissus and not necessarily a rose since there was no rose written in the Hebrew Bible.

Our gardens are about to give off a fragrance that will be evident to all who come to know us! You and I are about to BLOSSOM ABUNDANTLY, and because of it, we will break out -- just as the next portion of this verse says “with joy and singing!”

As spiritual gardens for our Lord, our lives will become a true rhapsody in bloom, making lovely music to our living God. Our gardens are about to spring forth in

• Maturity and Grace
• Acceptance and Forgiveness
• Brotherly Kindness
• Love, Joy, and Peace
• Temperance
• Meekness

In the next portion of the verse we read about -- “The glory of Lebanon” which means an ornamental beauty -- full of grace

“The Excellency of Carmel and Sharon” speaks to a changed countenance and a fertile heart able to reproduce.

The Lord gets ALL the glory for our transformed gardens and any transformed wilderness.

Our God wants to turn all our gardens into paradises, and here He has done just that. When we see what the Lord can do with us, will it bring JOY to our hearts and praise to our lips? IT SHOULD.

There is such a striking difference from our old garden to our new gardens that we are hardly recognizable as that old creation. That is what happens to you and me as new creatures in Christ. Behold, old things are passed away.

By His making our barren gardens into spiritual gardens you and I begin to receive insight into the glory and majesty of God as a result of what He has done.

1. How DOES your garden grow today Christian sister?
   
   • Is it parched?
   • Is it a desert?
   • Is it barren?
   • I Is it plowable?
2. Do you want to be able to put the pruning shears away for a while... and close your tool shed?
3. Do you want to be confident that you have not plowed your ground with a rake instead of a tiller only to discover it is too hard to receive good seed where nothing spiritual can grow?
4. Do you want to hear the Lord’s spiritual rainfall at night and see God’s Son shine in your heart throughout your day?
5. Do you want to be able to mentally lay back and meditate on Him while at work and at home and at play?
6. Do you want to be nourished by the Word and have God pull the weeds so you can blossom as that bulbous rose?

I do and I think you do as well else you wouldn’t have taken the time to read this study.

Reflect carefully on the following prayer sonnet as you go into prayer.

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