My mother in law is one of those people with a green thumb. There is something in her that drives her to care for plants. She has them all over her yard and you can find her out there watering them. From time to time she will bring me plants. What thrives in her yard dies in mine. When she visits, she goes out there and waters them. Sometimes she even brings a bag of soil knowing that it will help make a difference. She is constantly doing things to cultivate growth and life in the plants. What I do is let nature take care of them or try to put water on them Every once in a while. The same plants can have very different lives depending on whether they’re at a cultivator’s house or someone’s who lets them be.
Jesus told the story of a man who planted a fig tree. He was like me and decided to let nature do its thing. Year after year he would wait for fruit, but he was always disappointed. Finally he told his gardener after a few years to chop it down because it hadn’t produced fruit and it’s just taking up space. The gardener pleaded with him not to cut it down. He offered to cultivate it and give it the care it needed to produce fruit. He said he only needed a year of cultivating it and fertilizing it to get it to bear figs. Then he said, “If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down” (NLT). He knew that the tree was capable of producing fruit, but it just needed to be fertilized and cultivated to induce it.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” In order to produce these fruits in our lives, we must cultivate the soil of our heart. Verse 16 tells us if we let the Holy Spirit guide our lives, we won’t produce the fruit of the flesh. We all have the daily choice of whether we will be led by the Spirit or the flesh. We can’t be passive and led by our flesh and expect the Fruit of the Spirit to be produced in our life. We must cultivate our lives so that He can produce these godly qualities that others can see and experience. Cultivation is key.
Photo by Ana Jovanovski on Unsplash
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 