Luke 13:6  “Then Jesus told this story: A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed.  Finally, he said to his gardener, “I’ve  waited  3 years and there hasn’t been a single fig!  Cut it down.  It’s just taking up space in the garden.  The gardener answered, “Sir, give it one more chance.  Leave it another year and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer.  If we get figs next year, fine.  If not, then you can cut it down.”

Fertilizing is the act of giving nutrients, good food, to the plants you want to strengthen.  All living things, like plants ( and yourself) , grow better with good food.  The plants of love God grows in your heart are no  different.  In June, we will be fertilizing  or feeding the garden in your heart.

 Which  “plants”  should  be fertilized?  

 As in any physical garden, there are existing plants to feed as well as new seedlings.   Existing plants in your spiritual garden  are the existing  good ways you already are- such as being  - full of kindness or humility.  Be glad for these good plants already in your heart.  Fertilize them.  Everyone’s heart is different and these existing “plants” respond well to a general purpose fertilizer  each June and throughout the growing season.   The spiritual  plants are fertilized  with your favorite verses of scripture,  daily reading of the Bible or  prayers from  the Psalms.    ( You choose your heart’s true inspiration )  .   Don’t starve the existing plants  for passages you love.  Let  your heart  experience the peace and joy as you read them ( or compassion and sadness  if that’s where your heart happens to be .)     These passages you love  encourage  good things to grow.  You often will hear  or feel this good fertilizer as you listen to a good sermon or read a  good book. ( Listen as  the Holy Spirit of Truth points these passages out .)    Remember  your favorite scriptures for guidance  and feed  them to yourself   whenever   you feel the hunger.   Put a jar of them in the kitchen to eat like candy ( no calories)… Keep your heart full of good fertilizer as God gardens in your heart.

The new seedlings in your heart are the new plants you sowed in April  ( “plants”  you chose  to work on, that the Holy Spirit gently suggested to improve upon -like perhaps - courage or  honesty ).   These new seedlings are the ways of your heart you planned to improve with God’s gardening earlier this year. You sowed them  in April, waited for them to sprout in May  and , now, as God gardens , you notice a change, a sprout!  ( timing will be different for every person and God does what He wills- not as we will).  I have noticed sprouts of good seedlings I never tried to sow but God will garden as He gardens.  We are each uniquely His)   These  sprouts, as with all living things,  need food .   Spiritual plants are not seen with your eye but noticed in your heart.  They are changes in the way you see the world.   As you think about the areas you have sown in April, you may  experience of  a new , more loving way of responding to  or thinking about this world due to  God ‘s mysterious way of realigning your thoughts to His Truth .(That is His gardening.)   He does not change, your heart does!   You feel a new sense of compassion or more generosity or more courage or more truthfulness..    Previously,   you  would  not have had these thoughts!.  A miracle- you alone could not make these changes.   ( Perhaps it is just me- but by myself,  I am rather selfish and greedy).  With my belief in God,  a new, honest, more beautiful and useful thought comes into existence and my  thinking, my understanding, my true beliefs about God’sways and the  world we live in  has actually changed-  (that  is the sprout).  Notice the sprout is just a thought at first, just the beginning of a new way of thinking which will lead to action much later.  Real plants and spiritual plants need food as soon as you “see” them.  So look for signs of life- look for the sprout. 

 The new seedlings  of love need special  food and care  because they can easily die.  ( God will allow you to stomp on them if you choose to).    All good new seedlings  are fertilized (will grow or benefit from) by reading the scriptures with a biased eye- searching the Bible for that particular seedling- the specific concern you have been working on.  For instance,  if you are working on ( sowed ) courage – reread the Gospels only thinking about that  seedling of courage.  (This takes discipline to remain focussed on one thing-  keep going back to look for courage whenever you are sidetracked .  Keep  your intention to understand one area in your mind - see the courage in Mary or the courage  in Peter and particularly the courage in Jesus.   Make an effort to think about  what the Bible says about how to take courage….  Learn from the Gospel  and the Old Testament how others in the past received courage. 

One seedling which tends to sprout naturally by reading God’s Word is a tree of Faith in God.  This tree comes from the seeds of the Bible’s words which are being sown in your heart.  This tree sprouts naturally in God’s garden of Love.   You may sense a new calmness in your heart because you are trusting God a little more and  gaining experience with His Ways.    You may experience  a new sense of joy because of your better understanding   of what it is God is trying to say in His Word ( about Himself- Truth, Love, Justice, Wisdom) .   These new sensations let you know that there is a  sprouted seedling of the tree of Faith in God.    This tree  will become the focal point of God’s garden as it grows.  The tiny bit of calm and the glimpses of contentment are only the aroma of what the ripened fruit of the tree of faith can produce ( my hope) - true Peace and Joy in His presence with lots of His Love  as God’s gardening   overcomes  the troubles  in the world.    Let this tree of faith in God  grow on its own by fertilizing it with the Bible’s Words.  All you have to do is to read, to think, to wait, and to try to walk humbly with God  in obedience to what you can understand.  He does the work of creating  His garden of love  in your heart.  Do not try to figure this out in your mind!  Trust Him as your Gardener   and He will create a useful  and beautiful garden in your heart. 

Take note, the plants we are fertilizing this month in your heart are the plants of the Light ( gratefulness, honesty, helpfulness, patience, humility, peacefulness, kindness, etc. )   You know in your hearts what is a good plant to fertilize.  Pay attention to the good  plants of Love .   

Do not feed  or pay attention to the plants of the Dark. ( anger, worry, doubt, pride, greed, unforgiveness,  criticalness, etc.  You know the weeds!   ).  These plants will grow naturally everywhere with no effort.   Ignore them this month as you concentrate on feeding or fertilizing the good plants.   We will be weeding next month…. 

How often should I fertilize?

“Give us today the food we need” – our daily bread  (  Matt 6:11)

Fertilizer or food is needed daily for life.   Food is used up in the process of maintaining life- in the growth and maintainance .  Food constantly needs to be replaced.  Without food, living things will die.  God’s garden is alive in your heart.   Just as the flesh hungers for food daily  so does the garden in your heart.  It uses food each day.   The  garden’s  hunger for food is part of God’s unfathomable process of life.  Hunger , or a desire to be filled up, isn’t visible but it does exist.   Spiritual hunger  is similar to your stomach’s hunger  because it also growls,  gnaws at you and is uncomfortable.   The  living   garden in your heart will get hungry and it will growl- it will feel restless, irritable, hopeless, hateful  , despairing….hungry!!! Hunger is an  uncomfortable  feeling - a feeling of need, emptiness, want, being used up .  We naturally seek to relieve our uncomfortableness.  Try to eat something before you get too hungry….

Ps 147:14  “He sends peace across your nation and satisfies your hunger with the finest wheat.”

 Hunger is not a bad thing.  It is created by a loving God to tell us to eat.  Hunger is essential –without it we might forget to eat and die by starvation.  Hunger is very useful-designed for us to know when to feed our bodies  (and our hearts)  - Practice looking for the heart’s hunger pains and find out what food satisfies and when your  heart needs  to eat…Don’t wither for lack of nourishment –it’s free.  It will uplift your soul and give you God’s gentle energy from Love- God’s perfect food.  Eat !

Feed the spiritual life as well as the physical life in you. 

Why is God’s Word the best source of fertilizer for your heart? 

Eze 3:2  “  So I opened my mouth and He fed me the scroll. “Fill your stomach with this,” He said.  And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.” 

 God’s Word ( as seed) produces a garden of Love in your heart.  These living plants of love need food.  They  grow and  produce more seeds of love  for future life but alsothey  become the source of compost  ( more good food of love) to feed themselves as they wither and die!  In His mysterious way,   God’s Word creates the perfect food- Love- for the garden of love in your heart!  (I cannot explain His ways but see examples of His ways in His physical world - 

Gen 1:29  “Then God said, “Look, I have given you every seed bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.” 

In  the physical world , the best fertilizer or food is provided freely and abundantly by God - God’s composted materials of old leaves and twigs –from this once alive but now dead material ,  with  time   ( there is a process of God’s  at work,  an order ) , God creates the best  food for His plants- compost. .    Try as we may, man cannot improve on compost and gardeners know nothing  man-made has all the wonderful ingredients as natural compost- it contains life-worms and bacteria etc.  - just  as He meant it to be.  Compost is always very smelly and messy in the beginning - but the mess becomes the sweetest smelling earth .    In His mysterious way- life feeds life .    All good foods we eat have once been alive!    There is something very sacred in life- be amazed and be  thankful to the Creator. 

Deut  8:3  “People do not live by bread alone, rather we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Ps 119:103  “How sweet your words taste to me.  They are sweeter than honey.” 

In the same way,  living  spiritual food ( God’s Word)   is needed to sustain spiritual life.  The best spiritual fertilizer for your heart is  provided freely  and abundantly by God- His Word.  The same materials which create new sprouts  , the same words and thoughts -now more digested  over time and with our experiences ( very smelly and messy stuff as we try to use the Word in our lives- spiritual compost of our weeds, problems , joys and sorrows-our heart’s soil)  - these  materials sustain  and feed  spiritual  life.  ( Ask someone smarter than me to explain this –it always seems very circular to my small mind…)   The same Word of God from which you received the good seed  to sow is also the best fertilizer to feed the seedling.  Just as  you need God’s living Word to plant the seed,  you need  His living Word also  to feed the sprouts  in  your heart .  God’s  perfect way.   How amazing!  Spiritual life is fed with the living Word.   

(Mat. 6:25)   “Isn’t life more than food?”   ( doesn’t  the chicken come before  the egg?)   

How is the Word alive?  All good food comes from life…

  His Word  is alive-

·         Living because it  creates new life mysteriously  from itself- a type of replica  -a “better “desire for good  than before-another sprout of  God’s Love?   Himself? 

·         Living because it was born from a seed of God’s Word -  life from life- God’s Way- the seed sprouts as  evidenced by  something growing/changing in my heart as I consistently read the Bible trying to understand God’s Kingdom  (Spiritual life is faith in God – …a heart full  of peace, joy and love)

·          Living because it grows in my  heart  producing good thoughts, words and  actions.

·         Living because it needs to be fed, cared for

·         Living because it has a voice, a purpose, a force-  it can lift me up !

·         Living because it comforts, guides, protects me in Truth

·         Living because it teaches and strengthens me- what love!

·         Living because it can correct and  heal  itself – a peaceful heart!

·         Living because it is responsive to my  cries ,it listens and answers-Joy!

·         Living because it creates a heart which   pumps love (God)  for food and digests and controls  selfishness-( my thoughts as a separate being from others)

·         Living because it can wither and die - (Spiritual death is hopelessness …a heart full of anger , fears and hate)

·         Living because it is beyond our understanding.

·         Living because it is transmittable like a virus- life from life- love from love…you reap what you sow

·          Living because it is not stagnant but a mysterious ,ever moving  process unfolding, bound by God’s rules-always changing and always the same…there is a flow, a process and a cycle in One-  See pieces of it and worship God for His wonders . 

Ps 104:27-30  “They all depend on you to give them food as they need it….When you give them your breath,  life is created.”  (  Breath in the silent meanings of His Word ) 

Stay connected daily to the Word, the Vine,  Jesus.  Eat the life in the Word  for  life.  Keep your faith in God alive in your heart.  See the beauty and usefulness in doing this.  Believe in a good God, our spiritual Father.   We are images of Himself  He created  for Himself – His will was to create us.  He loves us just as we are- His sacred creations.   What can we do for Him?  Follow.   It must be pleasing to Him that we copy His ways as a child copies their father.  He wants, he commands our love.  Give Him love- your intention to turn from your selfish  ways and , with Him  gardening your heart,  to copy His ways and to do what is right.     

John 4:32  “ But Jesus replied, “ I have a kind of food you know nothing about….my nourishment comes from doing the will of God” 

Love is  God’s  perfect fertilizer for your heart.   Love does only good things in your heart’s garden.   Love of God  ( the best food)  comes from His Word.   Love satisfies spiritual hunger.  We all hunger for love, not hate.    Love  is what He grows in your heart over time.  Be patient.  It takes years to create the fruitful garden.  

Lev 17:11 “for the life of its body is in its blood”   

Love, God’s perfect food for the garden in your heart ( which grows Love or Himself) reminds me in some ways of blood.  ( Bear with me since this is beyond my understanding- it just is a beautiful image for me)    Just like blood which is pumped through your heart to feed your body, so love is pumped through your spiritual heart  to feed all the areas in God’s garden.    Your physical heart  pumps blood and needs blood for life  itself.    God’s  garden in your heart pumps love and needs love to live .  Blood is a miraculous substance of God’s design…more than we can know.    So  is love.   Blood is nourishing, balancing,  healing , cleansing, protecting and gives life to the body,   just like  love is purifying, nourishing,  balancing , protecting , healing and gives life to God’s  garden in your heart.   Grow as much love as you can !  Spiritual life is fed by the living Word which produces Love.  The life in the garden of your heart is in the  Love (God) produced from the seeds of His Word which grow a tree of Faith in God which produces more love as it’s fruit.  Fertilize your garden! 

God’s Perfect  Love  is the best food to satisfy  spiritual hunger  .  Our hearts  need God’s Perfect love to live because man is not capable of giving us Perfect  Love- human love is always connected to earthly things- we selfishly always want something in return for our love and God does not!   God’s love is always available to us –abundantly and freely- no strings attached -at all times and everywhere we go.

(Aside- Pruning to be more fruitful in August and harvesting love in the fall are  very important activities – a time of increasing  and receiving God’s love which  He is  growing  in your heart. ) 

Only God’s love is perfect !  God  overlooks  how man behaves ( all  the wicked and ungrateful people) and He does what is perfectly right.  He loves us just as He made us. (Joy!  Good News!)  God shows us His Perfect Love (turning from our “evil” or selfishness  and doing  good- loving us) ( very circular  to me - only God can truly understand).  Throughout the whole Bible He show us this Love, His patience, His faithfulness…  ( twice the psalms mention this process-  This process helps me to partially define love - since true  Love is unknowable)

Ps 34:14 “Turn away from evil and do good.  Search for peace and work to maintain it”

Ps 37:27  “Turn from evil and do good and you will live…..”

  God’s Covenant of Love with His People is a blessing .  It is what the story of the Bible teaches us as we listen and learn.   Whenever we show love ( copying God)  - we are turning from the “evil “ we see and doing something ” good” in kindness ,- we are showing others  our faith in God.  We are behaving in a godly manner for His sake, not our own (ideally) .  It is our faith, our true belief  in a greater power (God) than ourselves  at work in the world which gently urges us to turn.  Turn from evil and do good because we believe! .  “Faith is shown by love” (Luther) 

How does fertilizing (applying love to your garden)  work?      Ask God- 

Isa 55:1  “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink- even if you have no money.  Come take your choice of wine or milk- it’s all free!.....Listen to me and you will eat what is good…. Listen and you will find life….I will give you the unfailing love I promised to David.” 

As mentioned, the garden in your heart gets hungry and thirsty.    Just  as we must  get and prepare  food and water for our bodies, we must get and prepare  good food and water  for our hearts’ garden.  After we get the food, we must put it in our mouth,  chew it and swallow it.  What happens to the food after that is up to God.  We do not direct our stomach and intestines to feed our bodies or to eliminate waste.  These processes are  done  in God’s good ways.  Trust Him to fertilize (feed) our hearts in a similar way to how He feeds our bodies.  Our part is to feed ourselves and trust Him with the rest. 

Come and drink-

God does not bring the food He provides to us, we must go get it.  (Look at the birds…).  So search out good words for your soul.  Daily we need to eat.  Daily we need to ponder the scriptures .  Good food is used up by the body.   Our readings are forgotten by the mind.  Remind yourself of God’s rule in your life  each day.  Otherwise, you may be guided by your own thoughts which are more limited than God’s  (mentioned just  in case you haven’t noticed His Wisdom ).

Your choice-

God gives us the freedom to choose which foods we eat.  It is wise to choose good food.   Listen to what others have eaten in the past.   How do we choose?  When offered sugar cereal for breakfast or oatmeal with raisons?  Listen to Jeremiah’s suggestion of what to do at the crossroads- (Jer 6:16)”Stop at the crossroads and look around.    Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.”

  Ps 34:8  “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

We all rely  on the past experience of  others.  Their experiences help us to know which mushrooms  to eat  (or types of books to read), what fish  are poisonous .  Others can  tell us lobsters are delicious  or songs of praise to God  taste  good .  Let’s hunt for the good.     Avoid poisonous food, food that is rotten.    Bad food can be everywhere.  The media, other people, corrupt books.  .  Choose good food for yourself to eat.   

  Just like we all eat a different breakfast, we all can enjoy different spiritual meals.  Sometimes I need Wisdom from the proverbs and sometimes guidance -looking at Jesus’s way.  Be careful when  you  ask another person what he eats.  …Before you follow another person’s advice- look for the fruit of their ways- the peace and joy in their lives ( Gal 5:22).  If a person is agitated, worried, critical, mocking and angry- they may not be feeding on good food or, if they are, they may be new to the good food so the results have not had the time to grow.  Look to ask someone with good fruit, someone who is peaceful and loving.      Listen to what comes out of the mouths of others.    Listen to what comes out of your own mouth to get a clue about what you may be feeding on… None of us is perfect ( that’s God) but  there are  some who overcome life’s troubles better than others.    There is a pathway to peace and joy in God- It is a pathway God will show you Himself.  A beautiful garden path with flowers of Love.     As for me, I trust the Holy Spirit- in agreement with the Word -for the final say as I pray for guidance. 

1Pet 2:3  “  Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk…..cry out for this nourishment now that you have had a taste of the Lord’ s kindness.”

Eat what is good-

Good food is known by experience.  Good food perks you up  (not too much!) and tastes good (not too good).  In God’s  way, the psalms are good food- we do not know exactly why.    We do not know which parts we need to read.   Not only is the Bible good food, but we are fed by God’s Beauty, His Pleasures , His Love beyond words….We know good food by experience . We do not see the fertilizers working in the garden.  We can see the  “better”  results.  There is  a perception of growth in a helpful direction,  a process of improvement,  a more healthy, alive soul . Good food for the soul refreshes-the Beauty of nature and beautiful  artwork -drink it in through your eyes.  The  peace with God and the peace of being with other  people who are kind and generous- lift up your heart with this food!  The  sounds of the birds or a bubbling brook and joyful music- drink it in with your ears.  It contains God’s love…..The  aroma of roses and the  perfume of baked bread- Enjoy these gifts of God’s Love.  Why ignore the pleasures of life? Go get food to feed your soul.  It’s a  free gift.   Taste the good foods, feel  the  warmth and softness of a cat… Enjoy and be a glutton only of God…feed on Love and be thankful . 

(Just as there are good foods, there are bad types of food too.  Bad fertilizer or poison  for your heart is hatred.   It comes from the plants of Darkness or weeds in your garden.   Do not feed on this.  Turn from them!  They  lead to a spiritual  death.  It leads to your own death and to the death of those around you as they are fed hatred and not love.  Consider others if you cannot seem to get out of the weeds.  How miserable it is to dwell with hatred?   “ In anger, remember mercy” .  Walk in the paths He creates in your garden.  He has ways you never knew were there….)

Listen and you will find life-

 After we have chosen what food to eat, we must do something in order to actually eat the food.  God has given us everything we need to eat- the mouth, the teeth , the hands and feet - use them to get and prepare  good food.  God has given us everything  we need to “eat” spiritually-Use your eyes to read and your ears to listen.   Learn  from the Bible.    God has given us our brain to think ,  our  memory to remind us,  our imagination to glimpse at His understanding , a heart to stay alive, to grow a garden of God’s Love, - Use what you have been given to “eat”  the scriptures.  Drink in His Love and Beauty.

I will give you the unfailing love I promised to David-

We don’t know how God’s Word works as our fertilizer, but we can see the results as it naturally grows good fruit of love ( God Himself)  in our hearts.  You will not have to “pretend” or put these on by force - they will grow naturally just like physical fruit, out of your understanding of yourself, others, and God from God’s Word( seed)  and its application ( your efforts to understand and do what is said)  Little by little the fruit will ripen . ( We do have to prune to get the best fruit….that is in August).     The fruit of the Holy Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.  There is no law against these things.” (Gal 5:22)    

God has made you to  give you  His Love to eat.  Only His Love satisfies spiritual hunger.  Love is God’s perfect food for the garden in your heart.  That is why He grows a garden of Love.   He is not pushy.  He is gentle and meek and has given you freedom to choose what you feed yourself.  What a glorious Ruler!  Feed His sacred  garden good fertilizer this month! 

John 6:35  “Jesus said, “ I am the Bread of Life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.  Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

After our month of rest in May , it is time to work again in June  fertilizing  the garden in your heart.    As you continue to read His Word, try to understand God, His ways , yourself and others -as best you can.  Give Him time to garden, be patient  and trust in His ways.  Apply the word to your life –keep in mind always Jesus’s command to love.  Love God ( accept His rule and worship Him)- first with all your heart.  As your understanding  of God’s ways grow, you may  discover  a pathway in your heart to compassion for yourself and others.  We are each a  sacred creation of God’s and none of us can understand  each other or this world of His .   How sad for us!  Turn from the sadness of our situation-(born physically to die).  Find great joy in believing  God’s spiritual ways  - life forever  in His Eternal Presence.   As a gardener , we see  God’s  amazing ways of resurrecting  life in the garden.  Life is without end  in the garden.  Life comes from life.  Not man’s way but God’s way. 

Fertilizing your heart will lead to a more healthy, alive garden.   A living  garden will be  able to pump  love steadily  to yourself and to others.  This month, we did not consider feeding others  ( they need fertilizer too and you know from your experiences  where to tell them to get good food if anyone asks ).   A primary  task is to feed yourself with God’s Love and to get  your own  heart’s garden established.

  “First, take the log from your eye” (Mat 7:5), / “above all else-seek God’s Kingdom “(Mat 6:33), /“first wash the inside of the cup and the dish and then the outside will become clean too.”(Mat 23:26).  For the first year in a garden , it is enough to feed your own heart – learning  about God’s gardening from  His Word and your experience .  Watch  your own plants become productive with His  good seeds.  This year,  we will be filling our barns with the good  harvest ( God’s Love)  in the fall.  It is unwise to try to give  to others when your own barn is empty.  ( In God’s good way you are probably already leaking a little love to others  without your even knowing it   as He gardens ).  There will be a time to help others- when your barn is full .   Experience  God’s  good gardening in your heart.    Next year , in June,  when you work on fertilizing , there will be lots of excess seeds of love to give to others from your overflowing barn….. Be patient.  Be at peace knowing that as God  gardens your heart, He is also in the hearts of others – gardening away… 

  God is our Teacher and will show you as you search- not before you search but in the search.  God cannot teach you  if you do not read and  think  and do what  His Word  says   ( Not what other people say it says but what His Word  says to the Holy Spirit of Truth in your  heart).     He has promised to help us as we sincerely try  to understand His Ways more clearly.  ( We will always have a partial view- just like this writing is just my biased way of perceiving ….beware of believing too much in human  efforts….believe in the miracle worker-God.   Listen to Him with your heart.  Wait for Him to show you the way.  You’ll sense the Truth when you hear it directly from the Holy Spirit for yourself .  He is in your heart  gardening as you ask Him to do.   His laws are written in your heart.

Isa 55:11  “It is the same with my word.  I send it out and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to  and it will prospers everywhere I send it.  You will live in joy and peace…..”