Tend The Garden

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
[Genesis 2:15 NKJV]

We have spent more time this week at Dalbuie (the name means yellow meadow, fallow field or my preference agreeable place), trying to tackle the garden, which has been ignored because of the coronavirus lockdown. It is amazing how quickly an intended garden reverts to its natural state. What took my father many years to create is seriously threatened in only a few months.

It is no surprise to find that The Lord uses the idea of the garden to show us how our hearts and minds, our spirit, can become corrupted if left untended. God put us in charge of our personal spiritual gardens to tend and keep them - and left strict instruction as to how this can be achieved.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
[Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV]

Gardens are not always peaceful loving places; let us not forget that a garden is a tamed wilderness - its natural state is disorder and needs constant attention from the gardener to overcome the runaway chaos.

Our song today speaks of the heart garden, where The Lord is the gardener. His garden is always well-tended and full of wonderful blossoming life, and when weeds appear, He can direct our hands to pull them out and lead us in maintaining His garden plan.

THE GARDEN OF MY HEART

1. There’s a sacred and hallowed retreat,
Where my soul finds a fellowship sweet,
Where the Lord of my life I may meet,
In the garden of my heart.

Refrain
In the cool of the day He walks with me,
In the rose bordered way He talks with me;
In love’s holy union,
And sacred communion,
In the garden of my heart.

2. There is naught can disturb or molest,
There my spirit finds comfort and rest,
And my soul is no longer distressed
In the garden of my heart. [Refrain]

3. Shut away from earth’s strife and its din,
And protected from soul staining sin,
For my Savior is dwelling within,
In the garden of my heart. [Refrain]

4. There the dove of sweet peace always sings,
And my faith ever trustingly clings;
And the chime of sweet happiness rings
In the garden of my heart. [Refrain]

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“The Garden of My Heart” — Livin’ Forgiven

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OSWALD CHAMBERS — RUN TODAY’S RACE
Sunday 9th August 2020
We have to love where we cannot respect and where we must not respect, and this can only be done on the basis of God’s love for us. “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

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