Devotionals for the Heart: Back to the Garden of Eden with God

Walking with God in the Garden of Life
A devotion by Tema Banner

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” 

–Proverbs 3:6 (NKJV)

The Garden of Eden was designed to perfection with complete harmony and with no sadness, tears, pain or sickness. Sin was completely absent from this original paradise that God created. Our first parents (Adam and Eve) who were the first humans created by God, spent time daily walking with God in the garden and talking to Him.

Can you image how perfect this place was and how special it was to walk with God and spend time in His Presence face-to-face? Try though I may, I cannot. My feeble abilities to ponder what that experience would be like, I am sure, fall short of reality.

Many times, the thought has occurred that “back to Eden” is God’s plan. He wants us to return to a time of no pain, tears, sickness, or sin. To once again walk with Him in His garden of perfection. God has done a great deal to enable us to return to communion with Him. He has been patient, loving, forgiving, compassionate, and most important of all, sent Jesus Christ to provide the ultimate, permanent sacrifice: His life for our sin. 

Such love I cannot fathom. It is deeper, wider, higher and more encompassing than the human mind and heart can comprehend or conceive.

There is proof of God’s love in every small detail of the world in which we live. The majestic beauty of the earth, even when at times it seems she is coming apart with hurricanes that lash the shores and rip plant life from their roots and homes from their foundations; earthquakes that are untraceable in the destruction they cause, until they have ended with objects, lives, and thoughts turned upside down; tornados, their unknown path of destruction starkly definitive as it wipes one home off the face of the earth but leaves its neighbor untouched. 

The strength of nature in these storms leaves me amazed. I recognize that they represent a fraction of God’s might and power. The majesty of God should make us tremble at the audacity we exhibit in our thoughts and behavior when we barely acknowledge God or spend time praying to Him. How easy it is for us to forget about His Sovereignty as we go about our daily lives in this sin-filled world.

Proverbs 3:6 has pressed on my mind and made me ask myself, “Do I want God to direct my path?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” I have tried my way frequently enough to know that it is not the right way. God’s great love for us is once again shown in this verse (Proverbs 3:6): He desires to direct us, to show us His good will for us, which will give us peace, even in the storms of life.

God desires to walk with us for all of our days, both here on earth and in Heaven. God desires genuine friendship with us. But He doesn’t force us to be His friend. God gave us the freedom to choose Him, to acknowledge Him. He wants to be part of all your ways, as God was in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, He wants now to walk with you through the garden of life.

Will you accept God’s invitation to walk with Him and talk with Him? He’s waiting with open arms, eager to guide you through this life on Earth and bring you “Back to Eden.”

~*~
Author Bio:

Writing stories that take the reader on a journey to parts unknown has been a lifelong love for Tema. She enjoys all history and continues daily to hone both her knowledge of history and her writing skills. 

God is her guiding light and the reason for every endeavor in her life. She is a member of the South Carolina ACFW chapter as well as an active member of her local RWA chapter, Carolina Romance Writers.

Tema has served as past President and Secretary as well as holding various chair positions. She is the honored recipient of the Harold Lowery Service Award, presented by the Carolina Romance Writers.

God has gifted her with a loving husband, two children and three grandchildren who are the delight of her life. In her spare time, she gardens and digs into genealogy for nuggets to use in her stories.

~*~
Connect with Tema:
Website: https://temabannerauthor.com
Blog: www.temabannerauthor.com/blog
Instagram: Instagram.com/temabanner

Devotionals for the Heart: The Abundant Life from Jesus Christ

Living Abundantly
A devotional by Sharon Musgrove

“Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."” – Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

A couple of years ago, my husband and I made the decision to downsize our family home. Our eldest child was graduating high school with plans to head off to University while our youngest was only two years behind. The changes in our lives initiated conversations of future retirement and plans beyond raising babies. Our large home felt like a drain on our time and resources; a hindrance to our future. So, we moved.

The new house was full of character and charm with sufficient with room for our kids to come home. The yard, however, was the thing that sold me. It had been smartly divided into what we believed to be manageable sized zones. Of personal interest to me was the garden.

I’d always dreamed of gardening, but the previous home had been located on a heavily wooded hillside alive with hungry wildlife. My extreme reaction to poison oak made it a place of frustration rather than gardening success. This new home came fully fenced, sun kissed and pre-planted.

The seasons changed and eventually the growing season hit full force. I was in the garden almost daily, admiring the flowers and the buds that were sprouting everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere! Each bed, it turned out, was absolutely loaded with bulbs that were healthily multiplying and spreading. And while the flowering bulbs were of slight concern, the raspberry bushes were revealing a workload.

As I begun the berry harvest, a panic grew inside me. I could see the magnitude of what was coming and I knew I hadn't the time or ability to pick all that would come. I became sick with feelings of inadequacy and failure. Familiar feelings. Did we not just leave a property that took too much?

Living in abundant blessing did not look or feel like what I had assumed it would. I’d thought it could be divided into zones and it would manage itself. I’d assumed that fruitful gardening was like bank accounts with their tidy rows of credits and debits. This extravagant harvest was not controllable, not manageable…at least not by me.

In the midst of this dark thinking, light poured onto a patch that had been shaded. Suddenly, these words flooded my mind: That which God was providing was far more than I had hoped or dreamed…Wait, what? That was scriptural! Next, another verse entered my mind…His plans are to prosper and not harm me (Jeremiah 29:11)! The Word covered my fear in love. Here I was with far more than I could handle and that was God’s intent. It was good, not harming, to have abundance!

God created Eden fruitful, supplying sustenance to all. He gave Adam a management position in gardening. God shows us in Genesis 2:18 that solidarity is not good, help is. Living abundantly is a team sport.

What makes a profusion of juicy sweets a blessing? Sharing. Sharing both the blessing and the workload. The thought of letting others come and pick was a relief to the burden of the chore. I could have my fill and not be overwhelmed. Others could have their fill and be equally blessed!

A paradigm shift occurred that day. What else was weighing me down because I thought I needed to do it all myself? Where else were overwhelming feelings paralyzing me? What made me feel like a failure? What else could follow this pattern of abundance?

As the pile of berries grew in my bucket, so too did a list of tasks I knew I needed help with. Calling on others for help was a blessing to them and not my failure. Giving work to others brought them purpose and value and a share in the abundant life.

Looking back on the move, I am grateful. I'm thoroughly enjoying all that gardening has been teaching me. If I had known before that excess is a gift, I suppose I would have been contented to stay on the larger property. This lesson, however, came with the garden.

Thank you, Lord, for the abundance You have shared!

~*~
Author Bio:

Sharon Musgrove is a self-proclaimed sociologist. The opportunities opened to her, over the years, have led her on a fascinating journey observing human behavior.

She has a diverse background in business, fitness and health industries. This background led her to a unique position writing curriculum and teaching for two private, Christ-based, residential recovery programs. Both recovery programs served women primarily from the homeless community.

Sharon has traveled multiple times to Kenya, serving on medical teams and teaching in the rural Maasai communities. She's been privileged to participate in Leadership camps for maturing young women. These annual camps have a mission of encouraging and empowering the impoverished, underprivileged, and often abused young Maasai girls.

Easily identifying personally with the brokenness of the women she's served, Sharon now sees all people as needing more encouragement regardless of cultural or socioeconomic status. Within these ministries, Sharon has witnessed the transformative power of loving words spoken to the broken-hearted. Sharing God’s love and witnessing its transformative power has become her passion.

In her leisure time, Sharon enjoys her garden, health food, travel, and a good story. She and her husband, Jeff, make their home in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. They have two grown children. Currently, Sharon is writing her first Christian historical fiction novel utilizing her study, experience, and understanding of self-destructive behaviors.

Devotionals for the Heart: A Life Lesson Learned from Cultivating Soil

Cultivated Soil
A devotional by Sharon Musgrove

“He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.” ~Proverbs 12:11 (KJV)

It’s growing season where I come from. Life is springing up everywhere. I’m behind in my gardening, barely having touched my vegetable beds. Just because I haven't worked my soil does not, however, mean that nothing is growing in my garden. Weeds and snails are already thriving and reproducing at a rapid rate. Without me working to cultivate and keep the garden fruitful, all sorts of invasive species take hold.

Life is complicated that way. Not just in the backyard garden, but in our spiritual gardens, our hearts, as well. Scripture in both the Old and New Testament give us warning after warning, encouragement after encouragement in the cultivation of our hearts.

Because I want a fruitful harvest, I began clearing my garden this week. In fact, I was preparing a new bed that hadn’t previously been part of the garden. As I removed the weeds and sifted out the rocks, I was reminded of the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13. In this parable, a farmer scatters seeds over his fields and they fall on four types of soil…a hard footpath, shallow soil with underlying rock, soil containing weeds, and deep fertile soil. Only the deep fertile soil produces an abundant harvest. In teaching, I’ve used this parable for many years. It’s easy to understand and provides a good visual.

As I worked, God planted a new seed for thought. I ran my hand through the newly tilled soil and heard, “You know the soil is ready for seed when it moves easily in the hand of the gardener.” I had just taken ground that was bound by root balls and littered with stones and was now running my hand through it with ease. Yes, I knew exactly what He was saying. This soil moved with direction, was soft and warm to the touch. This is how I know my heart is ready for new planting from God. My heart is soft, warm and moves with ease. It feels like love.

When I hear from God in the physical things I do, I pick up my Bible and read His words. It helps me affirm and retain what He is saying. Surprisingly, it was the garden story in Genesis that stood out, not the Parable of the Sower!

Genesis 2:5 (KJV) speaks of the creation story and of a state without vegetation in part because “there was not a man to till the ground.” In verse 15, the Lord put man into the garden of Eden “to dress it and keep it,” as well as Genesis 3:23 (KJV) stating, “…the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”

We may think the Parable of the Sower is a clever story to help us understand that we have hard hearts or have thorns growing within us, but Genesis reveals that part of our purpose is to cultivate! God put Adam in a place of responsibility to continue what He started…to maintain and increase the fruitfulness of the garden…of humanity! If we do not continue to work our ground and “keep it,” then we don’t get to keep it! We lose ground.

This is evident in the consequence of Adam’s sin in both the exile from Eden and the cursing of the ground. What began for Adam as a life enjoying the fruitful trees God planted transitioned to laboring against thorns and thistles. To ignore our responsibility in maintaining loving hearts is a symptom of believing the lies that began in Eden. Proverbs 12:11 (KJV) states, “following a vain person.”

The wisdom in Proverbs foretells all! “He that tills the soil of his heart will be satisfied with bread.” While Genesis talks of the physical, “by the sweat of your face you will eat bread,” the Good News from Jesus is, “I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me shall never hunger…” (John 6:35 KJV).  It’s all the motivation I need to keep cultivating my soil! 

~*~
Author Bio:

Sharon Musgrove is a self-proclaimed sociologist. The opportunities opened to her, over the years, have led her on a fascinating journey observing human behavior. 

She has a diverse background in business, fitness and health industries. This background led her to a unique position writing curriculum and teaching for two private, Christ-based, residential recovery programs. Both recovery programs served women primarily from the homeless community.

Sharon has traveled multiple times to Kenya, serving on medical teams and teaching in the rural Maasai communities. She's been privileged to participate in Leadership camps for maturing young women. These annual camps have a mission of encouraging and empowering the impoverished, underprivileged, and often abused young Maasai girls.

Easily identifying personally with the brokenness of the women she's served, Sharon now sees all people as needing more encouragement regardless of cultural or socioeconomic status. Within these ministries, Sharon has witnessed the transformative power of loving words spoken to the broken-hearted. Sharing God’s love and witnessing its transformative power has become her passion.

In her leisure time, Sharon enjoys her garden, health food, travel, and a good story. She and her husband, Jeff, make their home in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. They have two grown children. Currently, Sharon is writing her first Christian historical fiction novel utilizing her study, experience, and understanding of self-destructive behaviors.