Ps 37 :7 “ Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act.”

After a busy April - planting lots of seeds according to the crop we want to harvest, - it is time to wait for the seeds to sprout in May.    In God’s good way,   the resting,  the waiting,  comes after the planting- after all the physical  and mental activity that sowing good seeds requires.   In His kindness , He says        “ take a rest”  - “ remember to take a Sabbath”  ( or we might over work ourselves  by doing too much  -fueled by  our own self- made guilt)  Human ways sometimes  seem harsh ( to ourselves and others).   God’s ways are  gentle and kind.  He insists on the wait, a time for rest  from  all the  rules we make up for ourselves.  Take  a  look at God’s way of night and day (or winter and summer).  There is a time of rest, of restoration,(night) and  a time of activity (day).  Copy God’s  way .  His system of sleep and  wakefulness  is not  a way man would always want or create.     Do not trust your own understanding.   Trust  God  ( “I am”).

Isa  28:12  “God has told his people,” here is a place of rest.  Let the weary rest here.  This is a place of quiet rest.  But they would not listen”    Jesus  asks us to come and rest… God’s way.  Consider it.

By May , in our heart’s garden, we have done all that we can think of to help ourselves.   At the end of all our evaluating, planning, preparing and sowing, we must wait. We do not know what else to do.  It is God who sprouts the seeds.    May  is the month we wait patiently  for the seeds to sprout– a very spiritual time of faith .  We cannot see God growing the seed  (His Word) but we believe just like the farmer believes that the seeds will sprout.   We have faith that there will be a time in the future when we will see a sprout above the soil!  He never tells us ahead of time how He works.  We must patiently wait.    Miraculously, God grows roots and a tiny stem….a tiny sensation of compassion, of patience that wasn’t there before.  A sprout of whatever it was that we sowed. 

As a gardener knows, all seeds have a unique  inner timing which obey God’s rules , not ours.  You will not see the sprouts until God’s timing happens.  Each type of seed is created with unique requirements  for it’s germination.   Some need light, some need darkness, some moisture, some dry conditions, some take heat and some take years to sprout.  Gardeners  use their  trials to understand the requirements of each seed.   ( God does not label the seeds for us to know- His way is for us to try different things and to learn from our trials. )  After a few trials  with the seeds you are sowing,  you too will know the conditions of your heart which will sprout different seeds of love.  There  will be different conditions your heart needs to sprout  generosity, peace or patience. Try to listen to God to understand your heart and how to grow the good crop you want .  If you are new at gardening your heart,  you must follow- just relax and wait for God  and see what He sprouts – it will be good.   Trust the Gardener in your heart to show you His Way.   Do not trust  another person to be able to explain your heart’s condition or how their Way is.  We are all  uniquely special to God and He gardens with each of us in different ways.      We do not know each  others  hearts.    God  alone is the Teacher.  ( Matt 23:10)  Enjoy  learning about the germination conditions of one type of seed this year ( honesty, forgiveness or  kindness)- God’s gardening teaches you about  plants of the Light.  Do not spend time now considering  how to germinate the weeds,  just the seeds of the flowers you want to grow.

Isa 27:2  “In that day, sing about the fruitful vineyard.  “I the Lord will watch over it watering it carefully.  Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.  ”

What does a gardener do while waiting for the seeds to sprout?

• Watch for the new sprouts.  Joy!  New life…a true miracle  

The action of just watching over things is a way to show love….Spend time this month observing your heart’s garden.  Watching shows concern and care by  looking over the soil (your heart or the hearts of others) where you planted the seeds for signs of sprouting.

 Ps 30:5  “Weeping may last through the night , but Joy comes with  the morning”… new beginnings, renewal,   brings joy.  

• Practice being led by God.  Relax and let God lead you . (How can you say you follow Jesus if you never learn from His Word - wait for Him to teach you- and let Him lead?)

Ps 25:5 “ Lead me in your truth and teach me.  For you are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all day long” 

Find the balance for you each day- not a formula but a way that flows more like life…Let the Holy Spirit guide you.  When you’ve read enough for the day -stop,  switch to other concerns  which interest your heart.  Have no agenda or format to your prayers.  Don’t even try to keep all your heart in the praise and thankful mode if you’ve been forcing yourself to do this.  Remember God’s way is a gentle, a loving force. ….. He wants you to come around to an honest thankfulness and amazement of His works- not a “pretend” one.  (If you are in the weeds with hateful thoughts- you are in the weeds- He knows anyway, be as truthful as you can be with Truth!  He made you just the way you are!)

• Practice being peaceful while waiting on God.  –casting your cares and simply trusting  in Him. 

 Eccl 3:7  “ A time to search and a time to quit searching.”

Practice enjoying  not having anything in particular to do and see what comes to you.    God is organizing your heart and you must let Him reform your heart His Way, trusting  that his Way will be better than your way.  His Garden is of Love, Peace and Joy .  With his gardening our  human ( divided)  hearts can find rest.   So anytime a worry, an anger, a judging thought disturbs your calm -  give the weeds ( evil thoughts) to Him –He is making a compost pile for all your weeds.  Relax- do not think about the weeds.  Turn from the weeds and think about good things for this month.   There will be another month for weeding (July).   Practice being in His care the whole month. 

• Practice being patient while waiting on God.

 Gal. 5:22  “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience….”

• Use the waiting periods to review your good plans from Feb and March to pick up on any loose ends.

A time of waiting is  a time to explore ideas you are curious about or a book someone mentioned.  Be open this month to whatever comes your way, like the wind…Review  your priorities  to try to keep them organized -making sure the focus of your heart is God alone.  ….

I always look forward to the wait because I tend to overplan and there is time to catch up…

One task I update for myself in this time of waiting  is a written statement of exactly what I truly believe…For me , my beliefs changes as my understanding of God, of humans and myself  in God’s world with others changes and becomes more complete . ( God doesn’t change.  My incomplete human thoughts change.)   My faith  grows and changes year to year - from reading and learning from God the best I can.  Many theologians are too  confusing for my simple brain – I just read them to see if anything rings true .  If their words have been kept for centuries I am sure there is value there.  Sometimes I can see what they are saying and sometimes I cannot.    So, anyone who is reading this will know that next year when I read these writings I will have changed, gone beyond these thoughts. God’s amazing way.  A never ending way I never knew was there.    After  two years of letting God garden, I know He is alive –changing things within  me in the garden of my heart .  If He’s with me, He is with you too!  He is with all of us.

•  Walk humbly with God around the new garden of love He is creating in your heart  ( it may be new softer soil or a whole new plant of compassion….Go see) 

Here are a few things to watch for as God gardens-

• Visit the compost pile He is building- a place for all the weeds.  Prov 20:22  “Do not say “I will repay evil” wait for the Lord and he will help you”

As God gardens your heart He will make a compost pile as He anticipates your need to contain the weeds which grow freely in your heart.  The weeds are the plants which like the Dark-(Prov 6:16  The six things God hates- haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who sows discord in a family“.  God puts in  all the things He hates in the compost weeds in His Way.

• Visit the new barn God builds  to house the excess love, joy and peace which is the fruit of His gardening.  He gives you this barn  to store the seed  and  to have ready (remember)  good things to feed yourself,  good things to give as a gift to feed  others and good things to sow for  next year’s good crop.

Closing thoughts on waiting-

When I walk around my earthly garden in May- as spring unfolds, I am grateful for the new life I  see  in  the garden.    I quietly give thanks to Him for the diversity and the Beauty,   the smells of rain and  the invisible activity which must  be happening…. ( all that is going on in the soil and the air ).    May is a wonderful time to be alone with Him enjoying the garden without a gardening tool in hand.  To just be open  to what is happening around you for a time - not trying to do anything  specific except  enjoy His miracle of life.    Watch,  listen ,  and patiently,  gently,  tend to things as they come to you.  Trust in God to be working invisibly in your  heart and the hearts of others in these times of waiting.   Do not go running to find things….  Waiting is a time to let go of the urge to forge ahead of “what is” and to take time and energy  to observe and perhaps to reconsider things as “they are “ in our life at this moment

 Let God  teach  you His Ways.  Let God reveal Himself to you.    When we are still before the Lord.  He can  teach you .   He can show you what His Word means.  What it means to turn from the evil   and to do good .  This activity is spiritual- Man alone  cannot get away from his  weeds (evil thoughts )–nor can man alone be good-for those activities are of  God .  Let God garden.

Ps 40:1  “I waited patiently for the Lord and he turned to me!  And heard my cry.”

He is always there in your heart and waits for us to ask, to want , to have a desire for His help.  For over 50 years  my heart was not gardened by God because I never asked for His help.  ( What could possibly be in the Bible that I didn’t know?- I arrogantly asked myself. )    I believed if I just read the “right” book or heard the “right” person speak that the world would make sense- surely someone  alive would know! 

Before I considered a living  God  with me in my heart,  the garden paths in my heart were overrun with weeds and very crooked- created by my tiny personal experiences growing up in the 50s in the U.S..  My heart  was a confusing , unorganized place - a place with uncontrolled angers and worries- lots of fears.    Before listening to God’s Word, I saw others as competition (wonder where I got that notion?) so I focused on the harm they might do and rarely focused on the help they might be. What a despairing path was trod in my heart.    I didn’t know another path existed.  I didn’t know I could sow any good seeds and God would grow a garden in my heart.   In my fears and anger, I spent all my time and energy fighting the weeds, the hatefulness of this world and was too exhausted to see that the hate was only half of God’s world.  There really was  God’s  Love.  God  gardens every heart.   God commands us to  love  ( He does not  have to command us to hate- that is the easy broad way for us).

of hate from my perspective alone.  ( My tiny kingdom of 1 –rather biased and limited…).

So ask God to come into your heart.  He is waiting for you.  Wait patiently after sowing His good seed.  Wait for the Lord to sprout the seed in His miraculous way in the garden of our hearts.

 Luke 8:15  “And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent  honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it and patiently produce a huge harvest.”