Daily Journal: 21 April

Gardens of Diversity

Gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Some are shaded gardens in moist areas with low-lying plants. Others are gardens with large trees planted throughout sun-drenched grounds, providing shade. Some are tropical, developing lush vegetation that blossom with annual, vibrant coloured flowers. They die down and spring up year after year. Others are sparse, composed in colour, slower growing but steady in their foliage development.

We are like God’s gardens of diversity.

Question: What kind of garden does my life produce?

Genesis 2:8 (NLT)

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

Question: Where has God placed me and for what purpose?

Genesis 2:15 (NLV)

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work the ground and care for it.

Question: How intentionally am I working the ground and caring for the garden God’s placed me in?

Song of Songs 8:13 (NIV)

You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!

If we rely on ourselves to become our own garden our lives will end up consuming itself. If we listen to voices that do not portray God’s Word our garden will be choked with weeds. The voices of others around us need to be chosen voices that will help sustain a garden of beauty that is of the nature of God.

Isaiah 1:30-31 (GWT)

You will be like an oak whose leaves wither and like a garden without water. Strong people will become tinder for a fire, and their work will be the spark. Both of them will burn together, and there will be no one to put out the fire.

If we rely on God to place us in the garden of His choice, and we tend it and watch over it with all care, if we’re intentional about our work and choose our friends wisely who also display the nature of God, our lives will flourish from the life-giving waters of the Holy Spirit and will be consumed by His life-renewing strength.

Isaiah 58:11 (TLB)

And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy you with all good things, and keep you healthy too; and you will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.