Crop failure or bountiful harvest?

Spring, summer and fall are my favorite seasons. The first sight of green in the spring renews hope of life and of warmer and longer days; the aroma of the first grass cutting; the brilliant colors in the blooming flowers and trees; planting of spring onions, lettuce and broccoli (along with the “oh my aching back!” proclamations); harvesting asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, squash, corn-on-the cob….my mouth is watering!! My parents always planted a veggie garden. In fact, up to the summer before my dad died he always planted and harvested the best tomatoes!

We plant our gardens with the expectation of producing beautiful flowers or delicious fruit and veggies. None of us plant expecting crop rot, bug infestations or “critter” invasion to destroy the hard labor and love put into our gardens.

God has planted His fruit in us with the same expectations, a bountiful harvest…not plant failure. He has planted the perfect Seed (Jesus Christ), sent the perfect Gardener (the Holy Spirit) to tend our garden and produce the perfect harvest (fruit of the Spirit). But at times we allow the soil of our hearts to be tainted thereby affecting the quality of the harvest.

Luke instructs us in Luke 3:8 to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
The proof of sincere repentance will always be a change in actions or conduct (Acts 26:20).
Repentance is the “weeding” (Galatians 5:19) of our gardens which is the result of the “remaining” Jesus spoke about in John 15. He promised if we remain in Him we would bear fruit (Galatians 5:22-25). When we allow His pruning in our lives (part of the weeding process) we will then bear “more fruit.”

God’s Word combined with repentance is like the spreading of Miracle Grow on the fertile soil of our hearts so that “much fruit” can be yielded from the “investment” God has made in our gardens.

How is YOUR garden growing?