Even though it's winter here for us at the moment, it's good to remember summer is coming. Or not remember if you are like me and don't like the heat and sun :))
From A Year's Journey with God...
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was making it grow ... For we are fellow workmen - laborers together with God; you are God's garden and vineyard ... under cultivation." - 1 Corinthians 3:6,9, AMP
I never get over the miracle of July! All the tiny seeds I planted in the greenhouse during winter are now filling my garden with vivid color. 'Isn't God clever,' remarked my three-year-old granddaughter. She is right, but not yet old enough to realize how much human hard work is involved in making a garden beautiful! I had certainly played my part in the miracle!
If we are God's garden, I suppose keeping our spiritual lives beautiful is also a partnership and often hard work on our part. I remember once helping my son move into a 'student house'. It was clean enough inside, but the garden had not been touched in years. As I fought my way through the jungle of weeds I realized someone had once filled that garden with roses, but bindweed had wound itself around the bushes, strangling their beauty, while giant nettles stole their light. I shuddered as I realized how easily my own garden could look like that. I pounce on weeds as soon as they show their ugly heads because they are so easy to pull when they're small. Surely it's the same with 'spiritual weeds'? Those resentful thoughts, discontented grumbles and negative self-pity can be removed comparatively easily if we 'yank them out' quick! If we ignore them or even 'water them' with encouragement they soon 'take over' and start spoiling everything that is beautiful and valuable in the rest of our lives.
Thank you, Lord, that I don't have to clear all these weeds from my life on my own. I pull them out but you burn them at your cross.
