Firmly rooted...In God's Garden

Firmly rooted...In God's Garden  Patricia Ann, Originally posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Many of us look forward to springtime.
Flowers bloom and trees leaf out.
Farmers are anxious to plant crops in their fields.
Many of us are happy that it is once again time to plant our gardens.
Many of us spend a lot of time in thought with our seed catalogs in hand,
figuring out what to plant in our garden.
Of course, we plant the foods that we like to eat the most, and those that are easy to grow. Many times we choose plants that will be weed resistant.
We don't want our gardens to be taken over by weeds.
We all know that in the right conditions, weeds can grow and spread more rapidly than we can keep up with them.
 Our gardens require daily attention.  We water. We fertilize and we hoe the weeds from our gardens.
 Then, one day we see that the tiny seeds we planted in the warm soil of spring grew to become a beautiful garden filled with colorful and nutritious vegetables and fruits.  We proudly look forward to sharing
them with our families, friends and neighbors.
 
Did you ever think that as God's children, we are a part of His garden?  We are His beautiful creation.
Starting out as just a seed in our mother's womb, we are nurtured and grown until we are born into this world.
Then, we are given nutrition daily in the form of water, fruits and vegetables. We grow from childhood into full maturity as adults.
 
As humans, we also need to be fed and cared for spiritually.  Just as the vegetable garden gets weeds, we also get weeds in our spiritual lives that inhibit our growth.
We need to look at Satan as if he is the weed in our spiritual garden.
As our enemy, he seeks to destroy our lives as God's precious and beautiful children.
 
One of Satan's tactics to destroy is to make us busy.
It seems like we never stop working. We never stop trying to earn more money.  We never stop playing or we never stop partying.
We never stop long enough to look at ourselves as special flowers in God's garden.
Our spiritual lives get choked off completely by the weeds of society
and the negatives of living in this world.
As we are spiritually choked off from the One who gives us our nourishment, we find that we are no longer healthy.
Our bodies are wilting like a plant without proper nourishment.
 
God created  us to be beautiful flowers in His garden of life, but our petals are falling off one by one.  Our leaves are drying up and or heads begin to droop.
 
We can no longer see the sunshine (the Son shine) because we can only look down at the ground.
We need nourishment.  We need food to eat and water to drink. 
Scripture shows us that our Father in Heaven will send us manna from Heaven.
 

(John 6:32-33) Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. 
 
God's love is so great that He sees our needs and He hears our heartfelt cries.
 
He will shower us with His love and provide us with nourishment from above with His Word and His promises. 
(Jeremiah 29:11) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
He will give us His sunshine (Son shine) so that we can look up to Him again.
 
As we thirst for His word and our hunger is met in His promises, we will discover that the weeds that once choked us out are now far below us.
 
 
In seeking our Father in Heaven we have outgrown the weeds and we are now firmly rooted in the soil of our Father in Heaven. We are beautiful flowers in His garden of creation.
Our petals and leaves, once dried up and dying are fresh and new every day.
We are saved from the cruelty of the world and the weeds of Satan's plan to destroy our Father's garden.
 
It is my prayer that as we are out working in our gardens, waiting anxiously to see the vegetable and fruits growing our favorite plants, we remember that God also anxiously waits for us. 
As He desires to see our fruits, I pray we glorify His Holy Name by refusing to be choked out by the weeds of the world and rising up to meet our Father in Heaven every day through our faith, our praise and our prayers.
He tells us that faith as small as a tiny mustard seed is all we need to remain firmly rooted in His word.
 
(Matthew 17:20) ...Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Believe in all that He is and all He has to offer to us as His children.
Receive His nourishment and His healing as we look up to our Father in Heaven as our Creator.
It is in His great plan for us to be a part of His beautiful creation.
 
In Jesus' precious and Holy name, Amen.