~ Tending The Master’s Garden .

Tending The Master’s Garden

Living as a follower of Jesus is not meant to be easy.  Jesus Himself tells us to expect resistance, just as He experienced resistance.  If we are being effective for Jesus then we are a threat to the opposition who controls the rest of humanity.  The Devil cannot afford to let us simply testify to people about the truth, because he knows that we know the truth will set people free.

There have been times when I could almost tell whether I was on the right track just by the way things started to go wrong or the numbers of red herrings I had to climb over.  I know the last bit sounded a little strange but that is just how it feels.  We aren’t challenged directly about what we are doing it is the side issues and obstacles that we have to climb over to reach the target, hence climbing over red herrings.

If we are sure of what God wants us to do, the fact of resistance can keep us going because of the assurance we have from the Bible.  Jesus gives us life for the benefit of others, that abundant live He gives, the peace we know are not the targets of resistance.  Often the resistance comes in the form of “yes but” comments made by those we seek to influence to the Master.  These I call situational blocks.

The opposition is very adroit at setting up situational blocks and curve balls that are put into people’s minds to distract them from the truth we seek to impart.  Often there are pre-existing prejudices (lies) that have been allowed to germinate, a bit like weeds in a person’s garden, ready for a time such as now when anyone starts to shine the light of truth and love into the gardens.  Years ago one of the most common of these was that the Church was a bunch of “wowsers”, against anything fun, more currently it is that the Church is “irrelevant”.  In a way that is true.  Without Jesus in your life the church is irrelevant but I hope you do see the lie in these statements.  The “weed thoughts” are taking away focus on the centre of our faith and substituting Him with a human organization that is divided.

Often these weed thoughts can invade the Church through individuals.  I remember a time when one individual held a church to ransom for years because of an earlier use of a part of the building, eventually he lost his control on that area and the church moved on.  So it is not just among the world of the yet-to-believe that weed thoughts exist, often we need to hold fast to the truth that we know in both environments.

To succeed in these quests of God we need to remember that in all things He is greater, that the fruit of the Spirit does not have a time limit and that love is the greatest weapon we have in the battles for souls and revival.  If we grow short with people or do not show respect then our love walk may become the biggest obstacle to a successful outcome for them.

In all things we need to remember that the quest is not ours, we are merely the hands feet and mouths working to bring about the result Jesus wills.  It is as simple as that in the long run.

The equation is Jesus died that we might live so then we must live that others can too.