How Does Your Garden Grow?

Lessons from a backyard flower bed
by Susan M. Smith

For years, I tried to make myself a “better
Christian” by signing up for more Bible studies or
taking seminars. But it wasn’t until I took a lesson
from my garden that I realized I was trying to make
myself grow instead of letting God do the work. Here
are some spiritual lessons I found lurking in my
backyard flowerbed.

Cultivate What’s Right for Your Soil

How many times have I thrown myself into a worthy project
that spread its roots and choked the life out of me? I’m slowly
learning that just because something’s a “flower” doesn’t
mean it’s meant for my garden.

In Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul teaches
that each person has different spiritual gifts, such as
teaching, serving, encouragement, administration, healing,
and miracles. These special, God-given abilities equip you to
perform certain tasks better than someone else.

If your gift is administration but you keep taking teaching
assignments because “flowers of teaching” look so good in
someone else’s life, you’re in for frustration. Not only will
teaching not grow well in your soil, your true garden of
administration will be too neglected to produce substantial
fruit. Just because a teaching job is available doesn’t mean
you need to plant it in your garden.

Don’t Be afraid of pruning

My azalea bush was struggling. Colorless leaves hung on
limp branches with sparse flowers. I tenderly cut back every
branch, assuring myself how lopping off lifeless branches
would pave the way for new flowers next spring.

Suddenly, I realized how lovingly and gingerly God removes
old branches from my life so I can sprout new growth. I
wasn’t punishing the azalea because it hadn’t yielded enough
flowers; I was doing everything I could to help it grow
because I’m fond of the little bush and want it to do well.

My friend Terri was in love with Max and intended to marry
him. Terri had never been happier. Because Max wasn’t a
Christian, Terri and I prayed for him daily, asking God to
draw him in. But when Max abruptly ended the relationship,
Terri was devastated. How could God let this happen? Was he
punishing her for falling in love with someone who wasn’t a
Christian?

On the contrary, God was trimming Max out of Terri’s life so
she’d be free to grow. It’s because God loves Terri that he freed
her to later marry Brian, a godly man who encourages rather
than hinders her spiritual development.

God doesn’t prune to vent anger. Instead, he trims our life
to help us improve because he loves us and wants to perfect
us. “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his
holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:10–11).

Weed Every Day

If I weeded every day, it would take ten minutes. But when
I say, “Those weeds aren’t so bad. I’ll get them tomorrow,”
I wind up spending an entire afternoon on my knees in the
flowerbed.

When Nehemiah set out to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, he
first repaired the city gates, including the Gate of Dung where
the people threw away their garbage every day. Establish right
now your practice of getting rid of the weeds every day by
recognizing the sins you’ve already committed and confessing
them to God, who “is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins” (1 John 1:9).

Realize Fertilizer Helps Us Grow

Christians quote Romans 8:28 so carelessly, it’s almost
become a cliché: “And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.” But, clichés aside, the skillful
hands of God can coax rich fruit out of a garden buried in the
smelly fertilizer of disaster.

Several years ago I suffered clinical depression when an
important relationship blew apart with the force of an
explosion. I stopped eating, cried uncontrollably, and rarely
slept. Never had I known the debilitating hopelessness and
worthlessness that came with depression. In desperation, I
began seeing a Christian counselor.

Today, I thank God for that disaster, because he used it to
change my life. The counselor and I tackled misconceptions
about God, myself, and my faith I’d carried most of my life. As
a result, I found a relationship with God I’d only dreamed of.

God didn’t desire me to be part of an ill-chosen relationship
just so he could change me. But in his grace, he used that
desperate situation—a whole truckload of fertilizer—to nurture
growth in me that might not have happened otherwise.

Water When a Drought Comes

Last year, when a lack of rain made hearty flowers shrivel
into sad-looking sticks, my weeds flourished. Likewise, when
I get into a spiritually dry place, I wither while my weeds—be
they bad habits, sorry attitudes, or a blatant disregard for
God’s direction—grow like, well, weeds. We all have seasons
when our walk with God isn’t as fresh as it has been. That’s
normal. But we can keep a dry spell from becoming a
drought with regular prayer, Bible reading, and meaningful
relationships with other Christians.

Ironically, it’s during the dry spells we’re most tempted to
stop reading the Bible or praying. But that’s when a garden
needs water more than ever! Put yourself in a position to
receive encouragement by soaking up the rain God’s already
given you—his Word, his Spirit, his communion, and his
people.

Let God Be the Gardener

Often I try to give plants room to breathe only to
accidentally pull them up with the weeds. Sometimes when
I try to give azaleas more of the acid-rich plant food they
love, I spill liquid on the geraniums, stunting if not killing
them.

That’s the kind of gardener I am, well-meaning but full of
flaws. But God is the perfect gardener.

God doesn’t wonder how to care for us; he created us and
calls us by name (Isa. 43:1). God never leaves a flowerbed
half-weeded, but finishes the good work he started in us
(Phil. 1:6). God waters us when we’re thirsty (John 4:14)
and feeds us when we’re hungry (John 6:35). God gives us
the faith to fight off the pests that would eat our fruit and
stunt our growth (Eph. 6:16). When we fail to take advantage
of his pesticides, he even restores what the locusts have
eaten (Joel 2:25). God protects us as his own children with
a blanketing mulch of adoption (1 John 3:1), and covers us
with the prayers of Jesus on our behalf (Rom. 8:34).

In John 15:1, Jesus says he’s the true vine and God’s the
gardener. According to John 15:5, we’re the branches
the gardener’s grafted onto the true vine. Our only
responsibility is to stay put (John 15:5–7) and respond to
the gardener. He’ll till the ground, prune the old growth,
send the rain and, ultimately, inhale the sweet aroma of the
flowers. We’ll cling to the true vine and grow.

As John 15:4–5 says, “Remain 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 … Apart from me, you can do nothing.”

How much simpler and richer life would be if we’d stop
trying to create our own rain and plant our own seeds, and
cling instead to the true vine and its only gardener with all
our heart, soul, and mind (Matt. 22:37)!

Prepare
It is our job to take steps to care for our spiritual life, but
ultimately we are reliant upon God as our gardener; we
must be surrendered to him as he does his work in us.
How has God been at work in your life recently? How has
he challenged you, encouraged you, strengthened you, or
changed you? Share something specific.