Musings on the heart-garden


  • My heart is like a garden, or so says the Master, Jesus, in Luke 8:1-15.
The parable of the sower gives evidence of the organic nature of the sowing of seeds, some of the seeds of the world, some of the evil one(perhaps these are the same), some of the word of God.
As I continue to consider this mystical Word of God, the Logos, which is not just the scriptural word, but the living Word or the living, active Spirit of Christ in my life, it is quite intriguing how this truth continues to burrow into my consciousness.
Before my heart is really ready to receive the seed of the Word, my heart garden needs cultivation. This occurs over a gradual period of time.
I know that the weeds begin to be pulled and cut out through a constant application of the prayer of Jesus--"not my will but Thy will be done".
Also, I am convicted that an application of the scriptures to my mind and into the soil of my heart-helps to cut out the sprouts of the 'bad' seeds. You know, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. My thoughts, my will and emotions, are thereby cultivated, when the word is applied.
My heart is able to be fertilized and when the good seed of the Word has been spread and has taken root, much like a thick covering of St. Augustine grass, the palntings of the Word seem to take on some "weed and feed" kind of capabilities.
The word, as it is applied routinely, day after day, prepares our hearts for a fruitful crop by eradicating and pushing out the weed seeds which are the result of the 'sowing of the evil one' who tries to plant other plantings, that is--what I am naming "weeds" in this organic analogy. ( Jesus calls them thorns in Luke's story.)
What are these plantings?
I heard a sermon on TV lately which outlined the way the evil one plants bad plantings into our hearts...through us inviting the planting, by our mind's eyes being open to those influences...such plantings as:
  • Impure thoughts. By allowing ourselves to be exposed to impure thoughts, we allow a strategy of satan to take root in our lives. Movies, online images, TV, recordings, videos, even gossiping, all these things have the ability to implant impure thoughts or weeds into our heart-garden. This presence of impurity allows the inclinations to take root, and voila, sin grows up straight and tall in the garden.
  • Anxieties. The anxious thoughts and worries of the circumstances and the issues facing the people & circumstances we deal with (and love and cherish) in our day to day lives creep in and cause our fruit to spoil or not come to full flower.
  • The world's influences. This is a subtle plant. It can actually have a pleasant looking flower at first, but it will develop a vine that will begin to strangle and choke out the other plants in the heart garden. This plant species is seeded through many diverse and sometimes hidden sources: other people's influence(peers);institutions; mammon, or wealth, which can easily become a rival god to YHWH; worldly movies, and/or TV; the myriad media...magazines, books, online video & text...
  • Drugs and alcohol. The worst of this kind of plant comes in the form of addictive behaviors, the influence of drugs(the gamut, from marijuana to all other kinds) and alcohol. I know from experience that this species can literally take over the heart-garden, like kudzu. Thanks be to God that He intervened and eradicated this influence from my life...
What does this imply?
That our heart gardens are to be single purposed and pure of all impurity, but what for? for what purpose?
So that the garden of our heart might bear fruit, and we might become lights in the darkness, that we might produce a crop of healing, guidance, helps, leadership, administration, patience, all motivated by sacrificial love.
When Jesus was asked to see his mother and his brothers who had come to visit, he used it as a teaching moment. He told his disciples:
"Who are my mother and my brothers? My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."

So what we plant in our heart gardens does matter, the purity or singleness of purpose of our lives does matter, in order that we might put into practice what the Word of God produces in our heart garden. The abundant life in Christ is not only a right relationship to the Eternal Creator, or a properly aligned belief system, but at its best, a life of practice, of produce. A fruitful garden.

What plantings are in bloom in the garden of my heart?

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