Preparer, Planter, and Protector

I love to plant things from seed and experience the whole process of watching for that first sprout, to the growth and transformation God programmed into each one. It provides the sweetest picture of how God allows us to participate in His Kingdom plan. 

Like a child working with a skilled farmer, that farmer has prepared the soil, so that it will be receptive to the seed. The farmer might allow the child to place the seed. Then he would come behind and do those things necessary for the growth.

God is at work preparing hearts for truth, planting seeds of truth, and following up with watering, growth, and protection. Isaiah 52:12 says,

“For you shall not go out with haste,

Nor go by flight;

For the Lord will go before you,

And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” 

Man made religion goes out in haste, not humbly and obediently. It flings seed where the soil hasn’t been prepared. It waters soil that doesn’t even have the first seed planted in it. It wastes time, exhausts and annoys, and is futile. 

But when we abide in Christ, with God as the Gardener, then like the child walking with that skilled farmer, we get to experience the joy of fellowship and the abundance of fruit that our Father produces.  

“So neither he who plants

nor he who waters is anything,

but only God who gives the growth.”

1 Corinthians 3:7

Let’s not abide under the supervision of men, but of God whose plans are fruitful, not futile.

“You visit the earth and water it;

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water;

you provide their grain,

for so you have prepared it.”

Psalm 65:9