A while back, I wrote a blog post about how sin is like weeds in our garden. You can read that blog post here. I’d like to take the gardening metaphor in another direction and write about how growing our faith is much like growing a garden.
When you start a garden, you dig up the soil (or plant in a raised garden bed or a large pot if digging’s not your thing or you’re physically unable to dig) and plant the seeds and/or bulbs. We plant the seeds of our faith in Jesus in our hearts so that it will take root and grow larger over time, much like our plants grow larger.
We water the ground and add fertilizer to our plants in order for them to grow up tall and strong, and also to produce fruit and vegetables if we have planted those kinds of seeds. We feed our faith in Christ by prayer and spending time with God, worship, reading our Bible on a regular basis, and sitting under Biblical teaching. Much like some plants grow better when they are around other plants, Christians can also grow in their faith through fellowship with other Christians. All these things will help us grow the fruits of the Spirit, which are listed in Galatians 5:22.
The water and fertilizer of both the garden and our faith in Jesus will produce a good harvest when the time is right. But sometimes, despite our best efforts (or lack of effort), our faith and our gardens start to wither and die. Maybe the weeds, both of sin and of plant, have taken over our spiritual and physical gardens and they need to be removed. Maybe some of our plants need to be transplanted in other parts of the garden to get them growing again if they get too crowded. If you’re in a church and you feel that you’re not being spiritually fed and the worship is dry, maybe it’s time for you to be transplanted to another church.
Paul chastised the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:1-22 for their lack of spiritual growth, although he used a food metaphor instead of a gardening metaphor. But the same principle applies. The Corinthians were not ready to learn about things that make for a deeper faith because they had not been feeding their faith correctly.
Keep pulling those weeds (of sin and/or plant) and keep on watering and fertilizing! I hope and pray that your spiritual garden and your physical garden are both growing well. Thanks for reading! See you next time!
Diane
