Three Blessings We Miss When We Don’t Spend Time with God (Part 2)

I have a confession to make.

I do not have a green thumb.

When we purchased our house in June, we also inherited a lovely tomato and green pepper garden. In the early going, it was fun checking the garden and plucking tomatoes to share with others. For the first time in my life I was able to say (with a little pride,) “They came from my garden.”

However, this newfound hobby soon took a backseat to a busy ministry schedule. My oldest son, more a horticulture aficionado than me, asked, “Mom, why don’t you prune your garden back?” I didn’t have an answer.

This week, I am embarrassed to say, I finally tended the garden, only because I was hosting a luncheon and the garden looked more like a jungle. To my horror, there were countless green peppers that never ripened because of neglect. Many of them were lying on the ground. Even the birds didn’t touch the baseball-like balls that could have been green peppers, or were they tomatoes?

Gardening is a lot like our relationship with God. If we neglect spending time with him, we miss out on the fruit of the relationship. John 15:5-6 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown in the fire and burned.”

It doesn’t work to occasionally check in with God.

The fruit won’t ripen.

Historically, those in the Bible who took care of their spiritual garden developed a friendship with God. Can you imagine living in God’s inner circle?

Moses, Abraham, David, Paul and Job are a few of the patriarchs who understood this intimacy. Job said, “My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend” (Job 16:20). Exodus 33:11 tells us, the Lord “used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.”

I long for that kind of friendship with God don’t you?

But we cannot ever experience this type of intimacy without cultivating a relationship with the Heavenly Gardener.

On the heels of Jesus’ teaching on the vine and the branches, Jesus says if we remain in his vine of love and keep God’s commands, we too can be called a friend of God. He said, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his Master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

So there you have it. When we spend time with God, the Word promises we can be pals with our Maker. We receive revelations we could only know through conversation with the Almighty. By cozying up to God, we can tell him things we could never share with others, even with our closest friends on Earth.

Nurturing our Holy Garden bears fruit that lasts and a bond of friendship that will never fail us. Isn’t that worth the effort?

On Saturday, we’ll conclude our series on “Three Blessings We Miss from God When We Don’t Spend Time with Him.”