How Does Your Garden Grow?

I am growing a garden. And I am really excited about it. It is so fun to watch it grow and have something to talk care of. God willing it will produce some fruit at the end of the the season, but either way, it is fun to do.

This morning when I got up I knew I needed to spend time in the word right away. But for some reason I felt like first I needed to go check on my garden. I dont know if I was being disobedient to God's calling right away or if He was leading me there but either way, God works for all good and it spurred a lot of thought and conviction in me.

My garden looks great! My plants are growing like crazy and you wouldnt believe how much they grow in a couple days. It blows me away. And they just know what to do, with a little water, they grow. But my biggest problem has been weeds. They grow like crazy all around my plants. And there is TONS of them. It looks like grass all over and around my plants. I dont wanna pull all out at all because its a LOT of work, but I know I should. I spent a little time doing it around my eggplant because something is eating it, ( I think snails) and it has destroyed one of the parts of the plant completely, it ate the whole thing in one night! And its a huge plant. The other one is getting eaten as well. I need to do something about it, I just dont know exactly what yet bc it is my first time with a garden.

I watered my plants, then went into my room and truthfully did not really feel like reading or praying this morning. But I started praying for the Lord to just speak to me, that I would wait on Him and I heard..How does your garden grow?

I realized, like I have heard many times throughout my Christian life, that my life is a garden and God is the gardener. That garden that I am growing is helping me better understand God and my life in Him. If you dont water your plants, or for us dont spend time being fed by the Holy Spirit and having truth poured into your life, you will die. We are called to bear fruit, the fruits of the Spirit and at that I was really convicted.

Galatians 5:22-26

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Let me be real honest and tell you that I dont think that my life is constantly producing the fruit of the Spirit. I dont even think I knew all the fruits of the Spirit, and so how was I supposed to know if my life is producing those things? I like verse 25, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." We are called to keep step with the Spirit, to live a life that shows that the Holy Spirit lives in us. Not sometimes, not when we see God's work in our lives and wanna celebrate, not when things are looking good and we feel good, but ALL the time. If the Holy Spirit truly lives in us, we should be bearing is fruit with our lives. It should be the essence of who we are. Girls, this is so convicting for me.

I feel like my life looks like my garden. The weeds all around it, so much that it overwhelms me to think of cleaning it up, but at the same time still growing. I know that I am growing, but my life is still engulfed with sin. And that eggplant that is destroyed completely in one night is like Satan who will take every opportunity, when we are least expecting it to tear us down and destroy.

John 15:2-8

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]}so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Wow! Our Father really is our gardener! He takes the responsibility to prune our lives, to cut off the dead parts and allow us to keep growing in Him! BUT, if we dont remain in Him, we cannot grow, we cannot bear fruit, we cannot do anything. Our lives can only be fruitful if we remain in Him.

I was thinking about my plants and how much they have grown since I planted them. Its been about 18 days and they are drastically different. All it took was a little water and I have seen how much they have grown. I thought about my life, and how much I have grown in the past 18 days with the Lord. If we spend time with God, asking Him to grow us and nurture us through His Spirit and Word, shouldnt our lives look drastically different too? Shouldn't people always be able to see how much we are growing?

I cant say for my life that it is that different from 18 days ago. Due to my lack of doing my part really filling myself up with the Lord and bearing the fruit of the Spirit. But it should look different. If I remain in Him like He has asked and called, my life should look like those plants.

I read this verse and it blew me away. You all know I am obsessed with going to heaven lately and am struggling with feeling like life is even worth it at all here, but this was such a cool picture of what it will look like when we are whole, with our makers, bearing His fruit.

Revelation 22:1-5

¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Girls, if we wanna get to this place, this place of Holiness and Purity and Perfection where we see God's face we have to be set apart. We have to bear His fruit.

Mia had said to me last night, " I try to think about if someone looked at my life from the outside in and looked at my house, my bank accounts, my time, everything, would they know that I am a Christian? Would my life look set apart?" If they looked at your life, would they see fruit? Talk about conviction! Lets strive to be IN THE LORD, REMAINING IN HIM, so our lives will BEAR is fruit!

I love you girls! Now go bear some fruit!! :)

xoxo- Natalie