“Garden” is our topic this month—and when I considered a garden—whether it is a flower garden or vegetable garden it has to begin with a ‘seed’. The first verse that came to my mind was John 12:24 where Jesus said:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
Several thoughts came to mind as I considered Jesus’ following words:
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Consider your life the seed. If you guard your life and fail to give it over to the control of Jesus to serve Him, your ultimate end will be the loss of your life as far as productivity and fruitfulness. A seed must be planted in the soil, watered and cultivated. It must die to its original state. As it is nourished it sprouts and grows to become fruitful.
This is Jesus commitment to us, that as we are planted in the soil of His life and die to ourselves in giving our lives to Him, He uses the circumstances of our lives to ‘break that seed’ that has been given to Him. He waters, cultivates and nourishes our lives hidden in Him to produce much fruit. That fruit bearing is not only in our own lives but it reaches to others.
To illustrate what this might look like I’ll share an example of God’s work in my own life. Someone did something that deeply grieved and hurt me and I had a choice to make. I could rise up in anger and defend myself, holding on to my rights, my feelings, my pain etc.; or I could appropriate Christ’s life in me by giving control of that pain and grief to Him (die to self), and give Him the freedom to produce a godly response through me that would honor Him. By faith, I released the matter to Him and I never felt more alive! There was evidence, too, that God’s grace in enabling me to have a gracious response, brought life to that other person. O, how I would love to have that response in painful situations always; but that one experience has encouraged me many times since that I can trust Jesus with painful circumstances, whatever they are. To bring life to others is the fruit of letting that ‘seed’ be buried so that we can experience the power of Jesus’ life in and through us. The fruit belongs to Him, because we are ‘dead’—and something dead cannot produce fruit! Right?!
The other thought I considered is that He wants us to be his ‘servant’. He says that ‘whoever serves Me must follow Me’. Being His servant is further evidence that that ‘seed’ is buried—dead to the self-life and committed to doing things His way. Jesus said in Mark 10:45,
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. He is our example to follow. He died in order to give us life. We die to pass on that life to others—to become fruit bearing servants of Jesus!
