Yesterday, I was working in my garden and with all the recent rains we've had, my plants had all grown so much,that I was amazed! But I quickly realized, that I had planted too many cantaloupe and watermelon way too close together. They had all vined out everywhere and had gotten so large- that the 4 to 5 foot distances I'd originally planted them in was definitely not enough to keep them from climbing on top of one another. So here I was, trying to move all the vines into opposite directions so that they'd have more room when they grew even larger, later. (I've never planted melons before:)
Well- the vines were still pretty thin, but very long and very heavy from all the young fruit and large leaves on them. And it wasn't long before I felt one vine snap and I cringed thinking of all of that fruit...getting cut off from the root system and dying...all that fruit that was just going to waste away. This immediately reminded me of John 15-“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 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."
Here I was sitting in my garden moving vines, snapping them one after another- competing against nature with my nurture and it just wasn't working. It reminded me of life. How often do we live day in and day out frustrated by things we have no control over? Other people, traffic, gas prices, the weather, grocery prices, people's moods or their agenda's, etc.?
Ephesians 6:18 tells us: "Pray in the Spirit in every situation. Use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert. Use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God’s people." and 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says: "Never stop praying"
So I began praying- right there in my vegetable garden, while on my hands and knees-covered in dirt, with vines in my hands-asking the Lord to move my hands so I didn't loose anymore vines-to help me to turn them the right way- to put them where they needed to be. Apologizing to Him for thinking that I could do even such a thing as this by myself. And that's when it hit me- we can't. Or we shouldn't. We weren't designed to. How many times have I ministered to other women- telling them that we were never designed to be our own Saviors? That doesn't just mean when it comes to our salvation. It means in our day-to-day lives as well.
My devotion from the day before was still ringing in my ears saying: "Stay calmly conscious of me today, no matter what...I will not allow circumstances to overwhelm you, so long as you look to Me. I will help you cope...Collaborating with Me brings blessings that far outweigh all of your troubles. Awareness of My Presence contains Joy that can endure all eventualities." I wonder how much of our lives would be so much more simplified if we'd stop trying to do everything on our own and turn to God to help us with it all? We humans have a habit of getting too self-reliant, too self-confident. We like to do things on our own, we like to do life on our own. Even my one year old says "Me do" as he snatches things from the hands of older siblings to.... do it on his own. So that tells me that from a very young age, our flesh is engraved with a characteristic of self-sufficiency.
God wants us to depend on Him for all things and to pray to Him for everything. Every single place you go, every single minute of every single day- everything you do, everything you say-before all these things- consult God- pray to God- ask God. We need to stop depending on ourselves and other people. We need to stop thinking that we know what we're doing and we've got it all figured out and then getting upset when our lives fall apart or when things don't go the way we want them to go.
We're all very fortunate to live here in the USA- we all have a Bible-or maybe even two or three. And we all have two knees to get down and pray with- and so we need to use them! Remember, apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing...
