DEVOTION//Be a fruitful vineyard
In that day—“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it." (Isaiah 27:2-3)
A healthy environment for healthy plants
A plant person knows that they can’t grow a plant anywhere they want.
Some plants require shade. Others partial shade or full sunshine. Some plants need to be watered daily. Others require water less often. Some require that old-growth be cut out before new growth and buds set. Other plants need the old growth to set new buds.
Environment makes a difference in having healthy plants. In a bad environment, a plant will struggle. Or fail.
Environment makes the difference between being a healthy or struggling person. Environment also makes the difference between being a healthy or struggling Christian.
Every plant needs sunlight, water, and good nutrients to thrive in its environment. People need a different source of light, water, and nutrition to thrive. The power to grow and bloom only comes from spiritual sources (John 15:4).
God’s Word nourishes a healthy faith
God empowers us to thrive through his Word. His Word connects us with Jesus, the master-gardener. By dying in our place, Jesus took the curses of root-rot and blight from our bodies and provided strength and health. In other words, he died to forgive our sins and made us his Father's sons and daughters. He gave us a future in his heavenly garden.
Because of Jesus, the plant that each of us is is changed. Through his forgiveness and grace, he transforms us from souls dried up by sin to beings who are fresh and green.
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard," God urges his prophet. Why is his vineyard fruitful? Because through his Word, "I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it."
Be sure your garden is fruitful. Provide it with God's Word.
Source: J. Bauma
Are you taking the best care of your garden?
"How does your garden grow?" quite-contrary Mary is asked in the nursery rhyme. That's a necessary inquiry for every Christian. Several questions will help know how well your garden grows.
How does your environment affect you, especially your heart and spirit?
How do the people in your environment affect you?
How do your habits and the reactions with which you live in your environment show who you are becoming?
How does your faith in Jesus clash with your environment?
How does your faith in Jesus affect the habits you have developed to live in your environment and the reactions you have to your environment?
How much nourishment does your garden find in God's Word?
Now dig into God's Word, while you ask the Spirit to increase your understanding
Of how you affect the other plants dwelling in the same garden as you and how they affect you.
That you are a “Christian plant” that is shaped by your environment.
Of what your environment encourages you to absorb and whether what you absorb is the “plant food” that is good for the plant that is you.
That, although some parts of our environment can’t change, you can adjust your interaction with them.
Of the parts of your environment that you can change in order for you to thrive.
Of how you can be a blessing to everyone in your environment as Jesus has been a blessing to you
Of how you can be a special blessing to everyone in your church environment.
Master Gardener Truth: If you do not discern the impact of your environment,
how important God’s Word is to your health,
how your environment affects you,
who you are in the garden of life, and
the kind of person God has created you to be the garden of your life, then