Good growing conditions

We have just come through an unusual heat wave. Yesterday the high was 37C; today it is supposed to be 14C. Our air conditioner ran all day yesterday and this morning my hubby joked that we needed to turn on the heat.

I looked outside. Rain had fallen during the night and everything was fresh and clean — good growing conditions. Too much heat ruins crops. Too much water does also. Growing conditions need to suit what fruit and flowers need. My spiritual life is like that too.

Last night a phone call threw a host of weeds at me. The person who called is a Christian but he was grumbling about everything. No matter the topic and regardless of any praise I offered to the Lord, he found something to criticize. After a time, I handed the phone to my hubby because I felt that if I continued to listen, I would be pulled into poverty of soul. Hubby is better at weeding than I am.

Today, Tozer asks some good questions. He ponders: “What is the special likeness of Christ that He would reproduce in me? What are the features of His life that He calls me to imitate? What pattern would He set before me in my work, my circumstances, my difficulties? What are the inspirations of grace that He would urge me to cultivate and cherish?”

And he points out that plants are never fruitful in thin air. I thought also that we are not fruitful in a field of weeds. Tozer focuses on our roots, quoting Proverbs 12:12 that says “. . . the root of the righteous bears fruit.” Ephesians 5:9 says that “the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” Both verses indicate that growing conditions come from righteousness. Our human flesh cannot produce the spiritual fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit through a life yielded to the Lord in faith and obedience.

Today’s text comes from this NT passage. It contrasts weeds with productive fruit producing lives:

“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:17–24)

The Bible tells me that grumbling is also a work of the flesh and ruins my fruit production and my testimony:

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:14–15)

In looking at these verses in light of last night’s conversation, I found this one:

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11)

Wondering what it means to ‘expose’ unfruitfulness, I checked the Greek word. It means “to state that someone has done wrong, with the implication that there is adequate proof of such wrongdoing — to rebuke, to reproach.”

I tried to rebuke those weeds, but not strongly. Instead of speaking out and using chapter and verse to address the root problem, I discussed the issues that were giving him problems. The real problem was that he had stopped trusting the Lord, which is the root of all complaining and grumbling.

So as always, this brings me back to my own spiritual life and the need to be fruitful, even in a weed patch without sunshine and nourishment. I’m still feeling the effects like a plant tugged from the ground but cannot complain or grumble. Instead, trusting God means learning from this, allowing Him to show me how I can be more like Jesus is such a situation. This will happen again and again until I learn what He wants me to do with someone who finds fault with everything.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, this is a challenge. Like the prophets of old, I am not excited about speaking against fleshy behavior. I don’t want to be another target for criticism or to be accused as an annoying person who does not care about the same ‘wrongs’ as those who complain. However, You call me to be fruitful and that list of fruit is so opposite to complaining that at times it seems impossible. And I know that it is — unless I have crucified the flesh and allow the Holy Spirit full control of my heart, mind, emotions, and my mouth!