I love to have a garden every year. I never used to be a gardener (although my name is Gardner), but about 6 years ago I decided to plant some seeds and ever since then I have enjoyed the fruit of my labor more and more. The last few years I have even planted vegetables in my neighbor’s plst because he was not able to use it. I have green beans, kohlrabi, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and potatoes this year, and they are all doing well. We have had ample rain in northern Iowa, so all the crops are coming up quickly. By mid=July, we should be enjoying the fruit of this labor.
One thing I have learned is that weeds do not need to be tended to grow wildly. They will take over a garden quickly and ruin the crop that I have worked hard to plant. The garden needs to be weeded regularly throughout the growing season. I try to get out daily and check for weeds and hoe them up or pull them if possible. Recent rains have kept me out of my garden for a few days (4.5 inches two nights ago). I will have to work extra hard to get the weeds taken care of once things dry out a bit. If I don’t, the weeds will take over and I will not enjoy asd much produce as I had hoped.
As a Christian, there is a crop growing in me ever since I accepted Christ as Savior. They are called the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness. goodness, faith, meekness and temperance are all things that should be evident in our lives every single day.. We should have an abundance of all of them, and should be able to give them out to others as they need them. Isaiah writes about places where there should be a thousand vines that are worth much, but they have been overtaken by briers and thorns. These briers and thorns not only choke out the good fruit, but also make it hard to partake in. Three times, Isaiah warns of these briers and thorns. Three times in three verses. That is the way God puts emphasis on something, and this is a strong emphasis.
We need to care for the garden of our lives. The weeds (briers and thorns) have to be taken out regularly. They grow wildly in all of us ever since the days of Adam, when he was told he would have to tend to the garden. The fruit that a Christian produces is so needed in this world today, yet the Christian is too busy with the cares of this life (briers and thorns) to care for the crop that God wants to grow. Lust, greed, anger, bitterness, jealousy and all manner of worldly cares come in and choke out the good seed God has planted. I need to cut these things off before they become a problem – before they start to choke off the fruit that is supposed to be evident in my life. If I do not take care of this garden, my own fruit will be spoiled.
Let us all weed out the briers and thorns that infest our life, and bring forth an abundance of fruit. Then we’ll see revival in the land. Then we will experience the fruit of the Spirit in abundance. May we all work until Jesus comes!
God's Maintenance Man 