9. To Live Off a Garden, You Practically Have to Live in It
Some dear sage once said that. Any farmer or avid gardener knows what that means. Gardens naturally become worse if they are not tended to constantly. One of the laws of science asserts that, if left to their natural state, things tend toward chaos, not order. That sure is true on a farm.
I remember a particular pumpkin patch. We grew a lot of pumpkins each year on the farm. One year we did not pull any weeds or put the plants under black plastic. That year it was not a pumpkin patch – it was a field of weeds. I think someone even measured some of the weeds at eight feet high.
You can destroy the best garden or farm in the world by simply doing nothing. The same is true spiritually. All you have to do to lose your edge is... nothing. Your old nature will take over and pretty soon you will be back to the same way you were before you got saved, or worse!
Another sage, this one named Job, implied this when he said, “Though he (God) slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15). Job said, “I am going to trust in God, but God is not going to read the Bible for me, or say my prayers for me, or go to church for me, or give for me, or so on.”
God will help your garden grow, but you better pull the weeds out, water, and fertilize it. We all should put a sign on our hearts: “Growing in Christ: Maintenance Needed.”
