Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Today's Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/1HcGQy3 Like what you see? Please "Like" & "Share" with your Facebook friends. See more at: www.preciousprodigal.com

#alifeofpurpose #timetogrow

- - - - -

2 Peter 1: 8 “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

People are social creatures, and being loved is one of the most basic needs we have. However, it’s not the most important one. The most basic and important need we have is to be needed.

Think back to the last funeral you attended. Those friends and family know you can’t give them back their loved one. They just need to know that their life mattered…that it made a difference. Who wants their life to be barren? A life without purpose is a life without joy.

I’m not a “master gardener.” That would be the man who lives down the road from us. It doesn’t matter whether we’ve had enough rain or spring comes late or even whether garden pests are rampant. This man’s garden is amazing anyway. When the average garden is producing generously, this man’s garden is producing double or triple that amount.

That’s the kind of life I want…a life that makes a difference and is fruitful. And I don’t mean moderately fruitful. I want it to abound like the garden down the road. I want it to be said of me that my life touched the lives of others and brought faith and joy and hope. I want to know it mattered.

The way to do that is to first have faith myself. That faith is going to be the seed in healthy soil. And once I have that faith, I need to begin adding things to it…all the things we’ve looked at over the past several days. The first thing we added was virtue…just doing the next right thing. Real faith results in action, a change in our behavior.

We then added the knowledge we gain by being open minded enough to listen to wise counsel. We might gain some kinds of knowledge from a book. However, knowledge about how to live life and impact others is something we learn from watching and listening to people wiser than ourselves.

To knowledge, we added self-control and patience, and to patience godliness and brotherly kindness. After we’ve made the choice, prayed and done the hard work to add those things to our faith, the last thing on our list is love...agape love. Can you see how it’s a process…how each asset replaces our character defects as we grow in faith?

That kind of growth reminds me of the oak tree in our front yard. It doesn’t drop its dead leaves in the fall. It doesn’t drop them in the winter either. It isn’t until there is new growth in the spring that it sheds those unattractive old leaves…leftovers from an old life…to make room for the new. With growth, it shows new life.

The promise here is that if “those things abound in us,” we won’t be barren or unfruitful. (2 Pet 1:8) It sounds simple because it is. However, like most things of value, simple doesn’t mean easy. It’s not easy to leave unsaid the cruel words or to wait patiently for God to work in our lives or in the lives of others.

It’s sometimes hard to do the right thing when others are not or to show love to people who have hurt us. However, if I want my life to abound, that’s the way to do it. It’s the answer to, “How does your garden grow?”

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today chose to add some wonderful things to our faith?