How Does Your Garden Grow?

My paternal grandfather had what I would consider a “green thumb”.  He could grow anything and he could grow anything in places that others said it wouldn’t grow there.  I asked him one day how he was able to produce such amazing results in difficult climate and he said “I don’t produce anything; I take what God has given and put it where it should be”.  He took some seed and placed it into the tilled ground.  He then said, “my responsibility is to tend to the needs of what God has given me, to water, to weed or to prune but God is the one who gives the fruit”. 

Jesus told us in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing”. 

As a follower of Jesus, I can easily find myself trying to produce things that I am not capable of producing in and of myself.  So many times, we struggle to “produce” a Christian lifestyle and we fail to realize that it is only as we remain in Him that He is able to produce through us the fruit that He has placed in us by His Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law”.

These things called the fruit of the Spirit cannot be produced without Him.  I certainly can’t produce them out of my own self.  You might see one here or there but there isn’t any consistency.  We must learn to “live in the Spirit” and also “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25).  We accomplish this by staying connected to Jesus through a life style of the Word and Prayer.  There is no other way.  It is the only way to stay connected to Him.  Trust Him to produce in you as you tend the things He has given you.

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, help me to stay connected to You.  Produce in me and through me all that You have placed within me by Your Holy Spirit.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.

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John 8:10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

I have been living for over half a century!  Wow, that sounds old.  I have never met anyone in my life who has never done something wrong, never committed a sin or never made a mistake.  We all find ourselves in places of failure and disappointment.  The bible tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God”.  This simply means that you and I don’t measure up to God’s standard.  That is why Jesus came to this earth.  He is God’s standard.  While I can’t be Jesus, He lives in me and by His grace I am found in right standing with God.

Life is full of people who want to define you, your life and your future by the actions of your past.  These folks who want to label you fail to remember that they too have a past with failures, sins and mistakes.

The people in John 8 brought a woman to Jesus that was caught in adultery….the law commanded that she be stoned(v.4-5).  For a moment Jesus simply ignored them, then He looked up at them and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” and He began writing on the ground.  We are told that they left from the oldest to the last being convicted by their conscience.

We should never let others define who we are, never let others define your life, never let others define your future.  When Jesus looked up all those who were trying to define this woman were gone.  He asked her if anyone had condemned her.  She said, “no one Lord” and Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

The action of Jesus to forgive and hold no condemnation was life changing.  He didn’t excuse her sin, nor did he discuss it, He forgave her sin and told her to go and sin no more.  What he was saying to her then and to us today is He won’t hold our past against us if we will come to Him and walk with Him from this moment forward.

Will you walk in the label’s others have placed on you? Or will you allow your new life in Christ to define your present and future?  

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank you for the forgiveness of sin, that You don’t remember our past mistakes.  We thank you for a new life each day in Christ Jesus. Amen.