5 Ways Gardening Can Bring You Closer to God
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- Updated May 25, 2023
It’s that time of year again when school is out and the harvest season is coming. Gardening is a hobby and skill that many people decide to take up in the summer. Whether it is one small flower plant or a whole vegetable garden, there are so many beautiful spiritual lessons that can be learned from a garden.
Maybe this is because humanity started out in a garden or because the Lord has so many parables about farming and plants in Scripture. No matter what the reason is, here are five ways that gardening can bring you closer to God.
1. Daily Faithfulness
Much like growing a relationship with Christ, a garden needs daily tending to for it to stay healthy. The regular work might seem tiring and even frustrating at times, but the sacrifice is a great reminder that in order for fruit to be produced in our spiritual lives, we need to be faithful daily in spending time with God in His word to grow. Regular dedication with plants and vegetables is a beautiful physical reminder to us of the great need for our daily pursuit of spending time with Christ.
As we have the disciple to go outside and care for the garden, it can be a reminder to make sure we are meeting with the Lord too.
Psalm 105:4 - “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!”
2. Reminder of Our Sin and God’s Grace
The fact that there are weeds in gardens might be irritating, but it brings us closer to God through refinement. As we take the intentional time of looking for the disturbances, it reminds our own hearts of how the Lord is helping remove the weeds of sin in our lives by refining us with His Word and Spirit. We are all under continual growth and removal of our sinful habits, thoughts, and ways. No matter what our age, sin still comes after each of us.
We have to be diligent to not ignore sin like weeds. If we ignored weeds, they would overgrow our gardens and cause great destruction, much like sin within our lives. However, if we acknowledge our sins and ask God to help remove them from our lives, we can flourish.
Weeding is never fun, but it does help us to connect with the Lord and realize our sinful ways. He has had great grace on our lives. Christ has set us free.
Psalm 103:12 - “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
3. Dependence
Gardening helps us to realize our need to depend on God. A garden can only grow if it has soil, water, food, weeding, and time. Gardening teaches us that we are as helpless are a plant in need of provision. The Lord provides the rains and helps plants to grow. He is the Gardener of our hearts who regularly tends to us.
Gardening reminds us of the deep dependence that we have on God. We are in need of His grace. We are in need of His help. He is our Creator and He knows what is best for us. When we are tempted to become self-reliant in life, and we go to a garden, we are reminded of the work and care it takes for plants to grow and produce fruit. It is a process, and it comes by way of the Gardener. The plant is fully reliant on having its needs met, just like we are called to be fully dependent on the Lord in all things. He is in control and we are not.
Philippians 4:19 - “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
4. Remaining in God
One of the most beautiful Scripture passages is found in John 15. Jesus describes how He is the True Vine and we are the branches. If we remain in Him, we will bear fruit. As a person gardens, it becomes clear that the different parts of the vegetable plant – the vine, bush, or fruit tree – are reliant on the base.
Christ is our foundation. As a person deadheads a flower or a plant, it becomes clear that there will be no harvest if the branches do not get the proper nutrients from the base and roots. Jesus helps us to know that without Him, there is nothing good in us to produce. It is only by His help that we are able to make eternal impacts and produce fruit in our lives.
It causes us to remember the fruit of the Spirit. Because believers have the gift of the Holy Spirit living inside, we are able to access love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Our lives can bear much fruit by His power within us, and others will see God working in us.
John 15:5 - “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.”
5. Sharing with Others
When a person has a garden and there is a good harvest, the produce and veggies are shared with others. This lesson of generosity helps us to ponder the joy of giving to others, sharing our spiritual gifts with them, and sharing the gospel. There are so many Scripture verses comparing the harvest of people ready to hear the good news of Christ out in the world.
As we think about the physical harvest and the delight we take in giving to others from it, may it reveal the greater need to share the hope of Jesus with them.
Matthew 9:37-38 - “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
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