Lessons on Zealous Living Learned in the Garden! Part 4
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Time to read: 10 min
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Table of content
Lessons on Zealous Living Learned in the Garden! Part Four Zealous Living Learned In the Garden from Weather Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 1. Weather Reminds Us We Are Not In Control. Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 2. Weather reminds us God is in control! Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 3. Weather Is a Reminder to Repent and Trust Our Faithful God. Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 4. Weather Is a Call to Zealous Faith! Have You Joined Our Zealous Nation Yet? Related Readings Explore Our Zealous Christian Gear
Lessons on Zealous Living Learned in the Garden! Part Four
Zealous Living Learned In the Garden from Weather
Are you ready for more lessons learned in the garden? Is your garden starting to take shape? Has the weather been favorable? So far, we’ve learned lessons about cultivating the soil, sowing your seeds, and dealing with weeds. I hope everything is going great as you trust God to help your garden prosper. But there is another important lesson that we need to discuss. It is a lesson that all gardeners have to deal with at some point. Let’s hope your garden stays on the good side of this one.
One truth gardeners and farmers know with great certainty is weather matters. One great lesson of gardening is learning to trust God through the sun, wind, rain, storms, and so much more. Gardening or farming exercises our faith.
In case you missed it, in our last article we discussed Lessons from Weeds. The first article in our series dealt with lessons learned from cultivating our soil. The second lesson was all about understanding the sowing of seeds. Today, we are looking at the role weather plays in our garden.
Are you ready?
Let’s get our ZEALOUS on!
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Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 1. Weather Reminds Us We Are Not In Control.
In our modern world, with greenhouses and water bills, it has become easier for us to neglect the trust factor involved when we set out to grow a crop. These conveniences minimize realities of the struggle. Yet the weather is still a determining factor, even considering these conveniences.
Farmers can drive the nicest tractors with all kinds of computer technology to prepare the soil, sow the seed, manage the field, and harvest when the time comes. Despite robust equipment and technology, the name of the game is faith and trust. Farmers know first-hand how important it is to trust God. They have faith that God will help them have a successful harvest.
All of our fancy tools and technology can not prevent a drought. Any prolonged drought has the potential to render our watering technology useless. We have no way to stop a torrential rainfall from flooding an area and destroying our crops. Not one farmer has ever saved their crop from the destructive effects of a hailstorm. No one has prevented a tornado or hurricane from damaging entire fields of produce. No one has ever calmed a storm apart from Jesus Christ.
There is a powerful lesson laid at our feet in the garden. There we remind ourselves and teach our children an important lesson every time we plant a garden, watch farmers sow a field, or visit a farmer’s market. Gardening, like life itself, is a yearly reminder that we are not in control. We are not sovereign over our lives as we often like to think.
Greater forces are at work among us. One year we can have the most beautiful harvest from our gardens, but the very next year a storm could destroy everything. God sends weather to us all in differing ways at differing times. There is no prejudice in how weather affects us. Jesus was very clear when He said,
45 “… For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
It is hard to remember the goodness of God in both the good and in the dire circumstances of life. Learning we aren’t in control is a very humbling, yet powerful, life lesson. It has the potential to stabilize our emotions and calm our fears. Occasionally, God permits (not causes) a catastrophe to happen in our lives.
In these moments, we should trust the sun will rise and life will go on. God is a providential, loving God even when a hail storm comes our way and destroys our livelihood. Lessons about zealous living learned in the Garden as we consider the weather remind us we are not in control, but we have a loving Father who is in control!
Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 2. Weather reminds us God is in control!
Perhaps we need to be reminded of our responsibility to trust God and praise Him amid storms and in times of plenty. Before science explained rain and storms, our Creator informed us of how they occur.
27 “For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, 28 which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.” Job 36:27-28 (ESV)
God created a system upon the earth that has been with us since the Flood of Noah. The water cycle creates a way to bring rain upon the earth. It is a system that God is in complete control of.
7 “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!” Psalm 148:7-8 (ESV)
12 “It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. 13 When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” Jeremiah 10:12-13 (ESV) (ESV)
By God’s command, the reality of even fire and hail, snow and mist, storms and their winds all remind us He is their Creator and commander. They are all in place to do one thing: obey and fulfill His Word. He has a reason for everything that happens in our lives. The garden is an incredible reminder and instructor of these truths.
Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 3. Weather Is a Reminder to Repent and Trust Our Faithful God.
God, speaking to Israel, made a promise to provide them consistently with helpful weather conditionally. Now, we understand being under the curse of the Fall, God will occasionally permit storms to come. In Israel’s case, overall, they saw favorable weather as long as they walked in the ways of God. God is always faithful. Even when we aren’t.
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” Leviticus 26:3-4 (ESV)
Frequently, droughts occurred when Israel rebelled against God and tried to follow the world rather than God. Remember when Elijah the Prophet of Tishbe cursed Ahab and Israel and God withheld the rain for three and a half years? Afterwards, God sent Elijah to a brook to stay nourished. Yet when God was ready to move, the brook even dried up from the drought. Elijah was sent to confront Ahab. God won the confrontation. Then, the rain returned as the people began to repent and trust in God.
17 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” James 5:17-18 (ESV)
God will be faithful. He will keep His covenant. That was not always the case for Israel. Later, Israel wavered once again and God withheld the rain for three months prior to harvest time to get the people’s attention.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;” Amos 4:7 (ESV)
He caused rain to fall in one city but not the next, also on one field but not the next. I have seen this happen personally. God is so in control of the weather that it can rain in one place, but 500 feet away, it is dry as a bone.
We would be remiss if we didn’t at least mention the time that Jesus was asleep in the boat during a storm. The disciples, being afraid of death, woke Jesus up in the storm. He then calmly rebuked the storm, and the storm relented.
God is in control of the weather. We are NOT. We simply need to find rest by exercising trusting faith in Jesus Christ!
Zealous Living Learned in the Garden | 4. Weather Is a Call to Zealous Faith!
Jesus said one other thing to the disciples in this account. I would say it to us as well as we seek to learn lessons on zealous living in the garden.
26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Matthew 8:26 (ESV)
Gardening, like life, requires a trusting faith in order to overcome our fears. We are not in control, but if we know Christ, we know the one who is in control. Storms will come! When they do, will you trust the one who is the master of the storm?
The gardener’s motto and ours should be the opposite of those who have a stubborn and rebellious heart. Jeremiah, speaking of them, said…
24 They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’ Jeremiah 5:24 (ESV)
To fear God means to trust in Him. We know God is the provider of all things. May we learn to trust Him more and more each day! Gardening reminds us of these truths. The garden is also a great place to teach these truths to your children. Spend some time praying about lessons you have learned from the weather in your own life or through your own study of God’s word. Then, share those lessons often, especially while you muddy your hands with the kids in the garden. Ask God to help you develop in your heart and their’s a heart of zealous faith!
Have You Joined Our Zealous Nation Yet?
Join our Zealous Nation! Let’s begin to offer up a collective prayerful appeal for Christian zeal to begin to permeate our lives, our families, and our churches.
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Founder & Editor at ZealousHomes, LLC.
M. Wayne Sullivan, M.Div.
Hey there! I am the Founder here at ZealousHomes. I am a deeply blessed with a loving wife, Crystal, and our two cherished daughters. I have served in Christian ministry for over 26 years and currently serves as the pastor of not one, but two great churches: Zealous Church and Lighthouse Baptist Church. I also serve as the host on our ZealousHomes Podcast. I love spending time with my family, reading with a cup of coffee, photography, graphic design, and writing articles that will benefit my brothers and sisters in Christ!
Through ZealousHomes, my vision is to glorify Jesus Christ by living zealously for Him. Though I'm far from perfect, I aspire to inspire others to embrace their own spiritual journey with zeal and fervor. Join me as we navigate life's challenges and triumphs, all while striving to ignite a stunning zeal of faith in the hearts of many who endeavor to venture on the sensational journey of following Jesus Christ.
