Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Bible verse of the day: Jeremiah 1:10 ” See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Insight: Sometimes in order to achieve a new beginning God must remove what is standing in the way. Like a Gardner, He must uproot and destroy things in our life that are keeping us from glorifying Him in the way He most desires. In the Bible verse above, God is telling Jeremiah that Judah will be punished for her rebellious ways, that He will allow her to be destroyed and overrun by the Babylonians and that she will have to spend a period of time in captivity. That must have been a fearful message for Jeremiah, as a Jewish man, to hear from the Lord, knowing that Judah was going into captivity as a result of her rebellion. But that is not the end of the story. The rest of the verse goes on to promise that ultimately, this is for the benefit of Judah, as God will eventually restore the land and provide it with a new beginning, a fresh start if you will. He must 1st remove and then restore. He needs to purge her before He can replant and bless her again.
These old testament scriptures are fascinating, still just as relevant today for teaching us applicable lessons in our own lives. Like the people of Judah, I for many years and in many ways was rebellious towards the Lord. In fact, I never even wanted to follow him until I was 38 years old. And like a skillful Gardner, when He finally got my attention, He needed to weed out many things from my life, namely a hardened heart, a prideful mind and a distrusting soul. The process was extremely painful at times, and can still be as I grow in my walk. But the Lord has continually shown me that His gardening skills are never wasted and they are always meant to clear room for the replanting that needs to take place in me. He needs to prune, to clear out all the weeds, so there is room for the new roses that He wants to grow in the garden of my heart. He needed to clean out the thistles in my mind, to make room for the Olive Tree he was planting that would learn over time to depend on Him for everything it needed. He needed to painfully pull out the thorn bushes in my soul to make room for the soft, peaceful waterfall that would help to water the garden He was rebuilding in my life, so that He alone could become the stream of living water that I needed to survive.
The process is ongoing and will be until the day I go to rejoin Him in my eternal resting place. The rooting out and pulling up can be quite painful, mostly because I can be quite stubborn. Nobody likes to go through the painful tear down projects that must take place occasionally in our lives. But if we can learn to see them through the eyes of our Eternal Gardner and realize that He is always trying to clear out space for a better future outcome, filled with more beauty and growth in Him and for Him, then we can learn from each situation as He draws us closer to Him. Sometimes, during our most challenging periods, it is quite normal to ask, why God? Why are you allowing this to happen in our lives? Like David often asked, where are you Lord in the midst of my suffering? What is the point of all this suffering? But Romans 8:38 says ” And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.”
We don’t always know why bad things are allowed to happen or when relief will come, but we always know Who will eventually deliver us, restore us and make us more beautiful than we were before. The Eternal Gardner, who first must prune before he can replant. I have come to realize the mess that existed in the garden of my life only in hindsight. But as He has worked in my life and begun to teach me how to let go, He has allowed me to see the beginning of new fruit from the seeds He has planted. As I repented, He replanted. He is the Gardner of repair and restoration. He removes the weeds of our lives, and replaces them with blooming Tulips. It is up to me to allow Him to do His work in my garden. Please come in, Gardner of life!
Prayer: Lord, You are the Skilled Gardner of life. You uproot the old and unproductive areas of our lives to allow for new growth to occur. It is usually more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. Thank You for cleaning us up, but never throwing us out. Amen!
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