Is Your Garden Well Watered?
~Ramona McGonagil~

Spring is just around the corner. Have you been thinking about your garden or planting anything recently? Last Summer, my husband and I planted an Arborvitae tree in our prayer garden in the backyard. Honestly, I am not a green thumb and have been somewhat concerned about it surviving through its first winter. I delegated the monthly winter watering to my husband in hopes that teaming up – his watering and our prayers can increase our beautiful tree’s chance of survival.

Did you ever stop to think of God as a gardener? Okay-not a domestic gardener who wears rubber boots, garden gloves, overalls, and a floppy hat, but rather his nurturing of our living
energy and spiritual reality in our lives. Tending to our spiritual garden takes teaming up with  God. He is the perfect spiritual gardener! He can come along side us in our spiritual garden, assisting us like all the necessary elements of tending to an outdoor garden. Raising a physical garden involves soil preparation, seeding, tending to, which all help to ultimately produce a healthy plant.

This spiritual gardening through God and His word can grow us into a healthy version of ourselves. In our spiritual garden, as well as our physical, we sometimes need to pull out a few weeds or thorns to let God’s light shine abundantly. This spiritual weeding can take so much work and patience especially when it is so hard to see the beautiful flowers because of all  the weeds and thorns. Just like in a garden, we can feel like we are having the life choked out of us causing us distress. Isaiah 58:11 reads, “‘The Lord will guide you always, he will satisfy our needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like Spring whose waters never fail. “

Just like a physical garden, a healthy and well-watered “God Garden” also needs good soil, healthy seed, and tending to which ultimately produces a healthy plant – us!

First our soil needs to be balanced and healthy because it represents our minds, attitudes, and hearts. We have a choice about how we take in the message and how we understand it. We want to have a teachable heart so that God’s truth can speak wisdom into us where He can produce good fruit! Matthew 13:23 reads, “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Secondly our seeds are the word of God which take root and grow in our heart. We were created by God to bring forth and produce good fruit or not- if our soil is in a bad state, we could have weeds that grow in us and choke out the good seeds. It is essential we keep in mind that the seed is God’s word, and the soil is our heart. When we permit His word to germinate in us, and we tend to His word lovingly, the word of God can abide in us. As we walk in the word… actively believing and then internalizing the word of God… this helps us understand ourselves and Him. His spirit will shine in us like sunlight in our garden as we grow closer and closer to Him in relationship.

Food for thought… How has God’s word taken root in your life?

Any gardener will tell you, a well-watered garden with healthy soil, good seed, and constant tending, is a recipe for success and is a constant process to reap the benefits of healthy plants.
How can we to tend to our soil so God’s word can be firmly planted in us and can continue to grow in our hearts? There are endless ways; the simplest is to just spend time with God. When we spend time with God, He meets each of us where we are, helping us to prepare our hearts for His word. He is the perfect gardener, and we can always find perfect peace in Him.

Each of us needs spiritual food to assist and protect us. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get very impatient waiting on God… and I don’t always trust Him as much as I should where my spiritual garden is concerned. I attempt to clean up my own mess- and that never works. I need to just release the rake out of my own hands and give it to God! I look forward to spending time in my prayer garden with my Arborvitae.

Be blessed.

God rejoices in tending the soil of your soul, cutting back what is overgrown, and sustaining you in all seasons. May you come to a greater acceptance
of and joy in His work in you as you grow in His love.

Peace and Grace to you.
The Lighthouse team