Be Sure to Tend to Your Own Garden!

Garden: A place for growing things.

We can't spend all of our time tending to other people's gardens and leaving our gardens unattended. Of course, I'm speaking of our Spiritual Garden here - our hearts. We don't always mean to get wrapped up in other people's gardens, we're usually just trying to help - by trying to comfort, give advice, or just lend an ear a little more than we should. What we're forgetting in those moments is that the Lord doesn't need our help - everything and everybody is in the Lord's eyesight and under His control. We must allow God to fulfill His great purpose in their lives, and stay focused and pray that He will do the same in our lives. I'm not saying that we should NEVER get involved in other people's lives, because it's wonderful to help others - when appropriate. What I'm saying is that we shouldn't get consumed to the point that we neglect spending quality time with the Lord getting those un-Christ-like things out of our hearts.

Let's take a look at Moses; Moses spent so much of his time in the camp among the people trying to work out their issues. The word tells us in Exodus 18:13, "…that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening." He spent so much time working out their issues that he didn't deal with his. These same people caused him to miss going into Canaan's land and some of them got to go in! Moses missed it because he was so angry with them, he disobeyed God. Numbers 20:8 tell us how the Lord told Moses to "speak ye unto the rock," but Moses lifted up his hand, and with the rod he smote the rock twice. Perhaps if he had spent more time working in his garden (his heart), pulling out the weeds of anger, things might have gone differently. Think about it for a minute - some of the people he spent his time helping went into the promise land and all he got to do was look over into it. That's not to say that Moses wasn't a good leader - because he definitely was - it's just an example to let us know that we should not spend so much time taking care of other people's gardens and leaving ours undone.

It's imperative that we stay focused on our gardens, so we don't allow anger, bitterness, and evil thoughts take root and start growing. Just like in the natural, if we don't keep our gardens chopped and well-tended to, weeds, wild vines, and grass will take root and grow all over the place. Remember, God is a Sovereign God. He knows exactly what others need, as well as He knows what we are in need of. Let's be sure to set aside some quality time and energy to nurture our relationship with the Lord.

With all that said, let the Church say Amen… and AMEN!