Spiritual Gardening 101 by Dr. Judy Baus

01/01/2012

A friend of mine was visiting her sister last summer and before leaving, they went around to her sister’s raised beds picking tomatoes for her to take home. My friend wanted to make salsa. When they got to those on her patio just outside her living room, my friend noticed those tomatoes were in special containers and were plentiful and large. She asked her sister about that. Her sister replied, “They get fertilized more often than the others because they’re close.”

What a wonderful lesson for us in 2012. Those who stay close to the heart of Jesus get fed better. Then our belief and faith level will be strong and healthy to face the obstacles of life. He’s right there to protect us and love us. When a person calls Jesus Lord and Master, he or she belongs to Him and needs the right fertilizer to grow strong in faith.

Most New Year’s resolutions and promises are usually broken by the third month because the person is usually REMOVING something, like a bad habit, which is very hard to do! What do you say if this new year, we ADD something to our life. Let’s focus on adding something that will help us overcome the world which is getting darker and darker as the years go by.

If I add spending time with the Lord by praying, reading His word, going to church to learn, then I will be bringing a healthy life-giving fertilizer to my life. The world seeks to draw us into its values and ways of thinking and for us to be fertilized by it. It is our choice this 2012 where we are going to get our nutrients for our journey in the year and years ahead.

Many people give up hope and only believe what the doctor or world economy says to them. The Lord is saying to us this 2012... For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13). It is up to you and me to do the praying and seeking with all our heart!

I want 2012 to be a God year for me because I am part of the family of God. I am in the world but I am no longer of the world because I have giving my life over to Christ. I ask you today who you are getting your nutrients from—the Lord Jesus Christ or the devil who is the ruler of this world system? All this is coming to an end but the Kingdom of God will stand forever. Choose to make 2012 a year of adding to each day something that will draw you closer