Lessons on Zealous Living Learned in the Garden!

Yet, work isn’t the punishment, the pain and sweat of work is the punishment. Work itself is good for us. God created work for humanity and humanity for work. In work, God hasn’t decreed that we work while He sits back and watches. Rather, it is important for us to remember the work that He has already done in Creation, the work that He continues to do in sustaining Creation, and the work that He is doing to bring us into redemption and future glory, which by the way, He has already done the work of planning out. God is always at work, so we shouldn’t see work as punishment. Instead, we should see it as partnering with God in His work.

13  "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Philippians 2:13 (ESV)

Prior to our fall into sin and our eventual punishment, God had already planned to have humanity experience the gracious gift of work.

The phrases “work it”  and “keep it”  are there for our benefit. Work isn’t a punishment, it is a part of who we are. We shouldn’t be afraid of it. Many in our day don’t know what a hard day’s work is really all about. Sadly, they have never had the joy and satisfaction that comes from the completion of a hard day’s work.

Those words work and keep could have another lesson in store for us. The Hebrew word, עבד , from which we get the word “work,” also has the meaning of “worship.” In addition, the Hebrew word, שׁמר, from which we get the word “keep,” also has the meaning of “obey.” So we could say that God put man in the garden to worship Him through his work and to obey Him in keeping the garden prospering. So in gardening, we can worship and obey through our working and keeping of it.

God planned for us to experience the joys of working within His Creation. Gardening is a part of that work. Gardening is a lot like living the redeemed life zealously for Christ. God has prepared good works for those of us who know Him, and we should zealously seek to walk into that work with joy and satisfaction in Christ.

8  "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)

In redemption and restoration, we can walk into our work, hard as it may be, with a sense of satisfaction and joy, knowing that we are fulfilling God’s call in our lives. There is a balsam of contentment in this for our souls. When we understand that hard work is a wonderful gift from God, we can face whatever comes our way with rejoicing. Yet this is only true if we also understand a second lesson from the soil.

Jesus told several agricultural parables in the Gospels which contain lessons for us about the condition of soil and how it relates to our hearts. If you study Matthew 13 and Mark 4, for example, you will learn about four different soil conditions and how they relate to our hearts. Without the right cultivation of the soil of our soul, we will not fully grasp the work that God wants to do in us and through us. This cultivation occurs in relation to our receptivity to the Word of God.

Cultivating your heart’s soil with the Word of God, you can bear the great fruit of gospel conversations with family and friends while you work and keep the garden. In brief, I have summarized the four conditions of the soil of human hearts below to get you started.

• The hard compacted soil of a life that does not understand the Kingdom of God.
• The rocky soil of a life that happily receives the Gospel, but doesn’t have the nutrients to establish roots in the Gospel.
• The thorny soil of a life that is more concerned with the needs of the world than the power of the Gospel.
• The good soil of a life that understands the Kingdom of God and bears great fruit.