The Garden

THE GARDEN

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

“When looking at a garden and one gazes upon the beautiful fruit – there is the realization that someone took the time to clean out all the gunk and weeds in order for the fruit to grow.” – Ty Bollinger

I used to share a big garden with my sister on her property. My children and I would weed, work the soil, plant, and harvest. We loved it. I soon discovered that gardens are a lot like hearts. One spring, the soil was pretty hard and needed much tilling. So we hired a man who brought his tractor and plowed our garden in no time. Wow! As I was watching him disk the hard soil, I said to God, “My heart reminds me of this hard ground. LORD, would you plow the hardness of my heart so that it will be soft and weeds would pull easily, and beautiful fruit could come forth?”

Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts.

Jeremiah 4:3b-4a

The Master Gardener answered my prayer. He plowed my heart!

A few days later, the loving Shepherd tapped this little sheep on the behind with His rod and unveiled sin and hardness in my heart that I could not see. I repented, and as always the fruit of healing came forth.

OUR OWN GARDEN

Each of us is responsible for the condition of the garden of our heart. We are not responsible FOR the condition of someone else’s garden; we are responsible TO them for the condition of our own garden. The exception being if we are parents of children before the age of adulthood. Then, we are responsible to God, to authorities, and to others for the condition of that child’s heart.

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 29:15

We are responsible TO others to weed our own hearts and not let them be overgrown with weeds. In other words, I am responsible for taking care of the condition of my heart so that I will not infect others with my weeds of sin. This enables me to carry through with the commandments…love God first with my whole, pure heart and love others second.

I am not responsible FOR anyone else’s garden, which includes their actions, choices, words, and sin. If I look at someone else’s garden and all of their weeds, then I will not look at my own. If I try to pull your weeds, I will not pull mine. It is impossible for me to weed two gardens at the same time. The more weeds I pull from my garden, the less will blow over to yours. So I owe it to you, out of love, to keep my garden clean. That is one of the greatest gifts we can give one another…a clean heart.

If I look at all of your weeds, possibly well-rooted and out of control, I just might feel the need to water your garden too, OR help you pull some of those pesky weeds. After all, it appears that you are not pulling them, so you need my help. Now if that’s the case, then who is taking care of MY garden? It is exhausting trying to maintain two gardens, and who knows, there may be more I’m trying to manage. And if I keep my eyes on other gardens, my weeds will grow abundant and much bigger, plus my eyes will not be on the Master Gardener to help me have a beautiful garden…so to be a blessing to others. That’s what gardens are for, to bless and serve God and to nourish the people around us.

ROOTS

Now it sounds like I have this mastered, and that I am able to maintain my own garden well. But the reality is, my heart is continually needing to be plowed. It can harden quickly over time and roots can grow deep. I can easily be lured into focusing on other people’s gardens and not my own.

Doesn’t soil need to be cultivated for softening and removing rooted weeds? Aren’t roots hidden from the naked eye until they are pulled? Remember, our hearts are deep wells, and what swims at the bottom we can’t see, but Jesus does. Only the Master Gardener can help us pull out deep roots of sin in our hearts that are hidden from our eyes.

“LORD Jesus, please pull out the roots of anger, bitterness, criticism, unforgiveness, condemnation, hatred, jealousy, covetousness, pride, self-righteousness, harshness, idolatry, sexual immorality, lust, lies and deceit from my heart. These weeds keep sprouting, and I wrongly want to look at other people’s sins and not my own. It is only by Your Blood Jesus and Your righteousness that the garden of my heart is made beautiful, as You are beautiful.”

FENCES

Now at times, I may need to build a fence to prevent another’s weeds from blowing over into my garden or so that I don’t have to look at their unweeded ground. We call that a boundary. And sometimes fences are for safety as well, to protect ourselves, our children or our sanity. We also set boundaries or build fences because our hearts are not healthy enough to handle the weeds blowing in from other gardens.

Multiple times, I had to set boundaries/build a fence with a person close to me. I had to eliminate contact with them due to their anger.

“Why, Jesus, do I need to keep setting boundaries with them?”

Then one day God said to me, “YOUR HEART is not well enough; that is why you need a boundary - a fence. The boundary you set, you think is for them, when actually it is for you. You need the fence because your heart is not strong enough to handle their sin being dumped on you; their sin makes YOU sin. Their anger makes you angry. Their weeds are blowing into your garden and causing more weeds to grow in your own. And every time that happens, you want to go over and pull their weeds. Stop that! Little do you know, that if you would let me weed the garden of your heart, you would not need the fence. I will pull your weeds AND I will go on your behalf and attend to theirs. Healing will begin!”

Never again did I need the boundary. I began praying for them and asked the Master Gardener to show me MY heart when their sin came drifting over. It changed everything. Praise Jesus…it is a blessed relationship today because of the Master!!

WATER AND WEEDS

Here are some facts about weeds and water, which I find remarkably similar to sin, hearts and the Holy Spirit. Weeds like to grow in gardens. That is a fact. And weeds like to grow where there is water. Ugh!! They will grow right next to the plant/fruit to either choke it or steal its nutrients. If the weeds get pulled when they are little, then they won't disrupt the plant, but if left to grow, they can cause the plant to be unfruitful, choked or uprooted.

However, the more water the soil receives, the easier it is to pull the weeds. They come out effortlessly. Weeds are much more difficult to remove when the soil is hard and thirsty. They must be dug out, cultivated or pulled laboriously. So it is interesting that the water attracts the weeds on one hand, but causes them to easily be pulled on the other.

The Holy Spirit is the key – the Living Water. This Water makes our hearts flourish and grow, but wherever the Holy Spirit is, the enemy likes to plant sin in order to bring death, destruction and thievery. If the sin gets pulled when it is small, it won’t take root, but if left to grow, it will suck the life out of the heart to destroy it.

Sin will come out easily, and the enemy will flee when the heart is regularly watered by the Holy Spirit. But be on guard; where the Living Water is being poured out, the enemy wants to plant sin and destroy. That is why we cry out for more of Jesus, more of the Holy Spirit!!

The Holy Spirit makes the seed (the Word of God) grow in our hearts to bring forth fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Praise the LORD!

It’s all about the heart.

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Luke 8:11-15

SUMMARY

The only hearts we are responsible for in this life is our own and our underage children. Our adult children and others are responsible to God and to mankind for the condition of their own hearts. We are responsible TO others, but not FOR them.

Letting the Holy Spirit attend to the garden of our own heart – the plowing, the watering, and weeding, will produce much fruit and great beauty. It will be a blessing to others!

BUT if we decide to look at the condition of another’s garden and try to pull their weeds, than our garden will be neglected. Our weeds will grow bigger, deeper and more abundant. Eventually, they will float to other gardens and infect them as well.

So we cry out for Jesus, the Master Gardener, to soften our hearts, for the Holy Spirit to water so that our sin is easily pulled, and we need to stay in the Word of God – the Seed planted and then fruit is produced. Like John the Baptist said in Matthew 3, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

May the precious Blood of Jesus blanket and protect your garden, and His righteousness produce fruit in you to bless the world.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him, He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.

Jeremiah 17:7-10

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1:2-3

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Matthew 13:3-8

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15:8

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:18

Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.

Isaiah 6:10

The Garden

Healing of The Heart