GUARD THE GARDEN OF YOUR HEART

Our hearts are like a garden in which the fruit of the Spirit should be growing: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)

But the attitudes we had in our old life are also there, trying to crowd out the beautiful fruit God wants. Every day we are tempted to give in to anger, pride, jealousy, fear, worry, selfishness, and evil speaking. Think of these as little foxes that are trying to steal the fruit from our lives.

God’s Holy Spirit is grieved when we let these little foxes run through our garden. In Ephesians 4:30-32 He says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

We need God’s help every day to keep these fleshly attitudes out of our lives. Whenever we catch ourselves speaking in anger or pride, we need to confess that sin to Him and ask Him for full victory so that we do not continue to fall into that sin. Gradually God will give us victory over the fear and worry and jealousy we have felt, but only if we acknowledge those things as sin and confess them with an attitude of repentance.

Jesus is speaking to us today, calling us to Himself as we read in Song of Solomon 2:14-15. "O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes."

Our Lord loves to hear our voices raised in praise and prayer. But when the little foxes run through our lives stealing the fruit of the Spirit, we neglect reading God’s Word. Prayer is uncomfortable because we are out of fellowship with Jesus. We know we have grieved the Spirit of God, and we don’t feel like praising Him even in church. The little foxes, the habits of the old life, have stolen our peace and joy.

May the Lord help us to guard our hearts carefully and refuse to let the habits and attitudes of our old life crowd out the fruit that should be growing there.

GUARD YOUR HEART

Little foxes seem so harmless
when they race across the ground.
But not when they eat the garden,
when they hide among the vines.
When they eat the grapes and berries,
they’re like thieves who hurt our lives.

Little faults may grow in secret,
careless words we speak in haste.
Tangled growth will choke the fruit out
and our lives will go to waste.
Little foxes, careless habits
drain our strength and eat the fruit.

Are we bearing fruit for Jesus,
confessing every sin to Him?
Don’t tolerate the little foxes.
Quickly deal with every sin.
You can be a fruitful garden.
Keep your heart pure within.

© Rosemary Watson 2007
rawatson31@cox.net

PATIENCE AND LOVINGKINDNESS

Have you ever felt impatient with a Christian friend who doesn’t seem to grow spiritually?

Perhaps you have been waiting years for the person to change certain attitudes that seem to be hindering their witness for the Lord. If the person leads a godly life in most respects, you may hesitate to say anything to them, for it is basically up to the Holy Spirit to convict them of their wrong attitude. God may lead you to offer spiritual counsel in a loving way, but if your friend doesn’t respond, the only alternative is to pray that God will show them what is clogging their relationship with Christ.

We need to pray for our friends who seem unaware that they are doing something that grieves God. But unless we have a very close relationship with them, it is rarely our duty to correct them. God will awaken their conscience and call them to repentance when the time is right.
We need to beware of priding ourselves on our biblical knowledge and trying to control the people around us. It is sometimes difficult to keep silent, but it is usually the right thing to do.

Hear God’s warning through the prophet Jeremiah.

"Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord." Jeremiah 9:23-24 (New American Standard Bible version)

Note that God puts his lovingkindness ahead of His justice and righteousness. God will not do anything which is unjust or unholy, but He does deal with us in patience and kindness before He comes down upon us in judgment. I am grateful for God’s patience with me, so I should allow God to deal patiently and lovingly with others.

We need to show more patience and kindness to the ones around us, especially to those who are in the same Family of Jesus. God sees our friend’s true heart, and perhaps He is dealing with some other problem in their life right now. Eventually He will teach them what they need to know.

In the meantime, we should always take a stand for truth and holiness. But beware of becoming judgmental and critical of others. If we look carefully into our own heart, we will probably see several areas in which we ourselves need to improve. We are responsible for our own attitude, not for what others are doing. God will use us as examples to help others if we are humble and careful to obey Him, if we daily repent and confess our own sins. God cannot use a Christian who is proud and self-righteous. We can fall into that bad attitude easily without realizing it.

So make it your aim to have a humble heart sensitive to the probing of the Holy Spirit, quick to repent and confess your sins, but always show patience and lovingkindess to others who seem to be lagging behind.

Rosemary Watson
rawatson31@cox.net