Wednesday, December 4, 2024

WHAT IS GROWING IN YOUR GARDEN?

 

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

               I saw an interesting commercial the other day. It began with beautiful scenes of pristine nature. Then it showed pollution being pumped into the water and fouling the environment. The camera panned back and a young woman, who was vaping, came into focus. The tag line was vaping pollutes the beautiful world of your body.

               The point of the commercial was that what we put into our body affects our wellbeing. This is a truth that should be applied not just to the physical things we take into our body but to the emotional and intellectual things we take into our mind.

               In my devotions today, I read a piece by Max Lucado where he equated our heart to a greenhouse garden. The crop that the garden produces is dictated by the seeds that are planted there. Then he asked the question, what seeds are you planting in your heart?

               Solomon warned us long ago to guard our hearts. The heart represents the very core of our being. It is more than just our mind. It is the operating system of our life. Just like in a computer, the operating system controls everything. The output from the operating system is shaped by the data put in.

               Most of us have become more careful about what we eat. We watch the amount of fat and sugar that we consume. If we are diligent in this, it pays off in better physical health. Unfortunately, we are often not as selective about what we allow to come into our minds. We have become used to consuming intellectual junk food. We are bombarded daily with messages that are shaping who we are becoming, and often we don’t see the changes until they become very evident.

               When I was in college, I had a roommate who we very negative. He could find fault in any situation. Nothing seemed to be right in his estimation. Sometime during that year, I developed a similar negative attitude. By the end of the year, if my roommate could not find something to complain about I could. It took me a while to clean out the negative and reset my operating system.

               As followers of Christ, we have to fight hard to swim again to tide of negativism that is so prominent in our society. If we do not guard our heart, we will focus on the wrong things and miss the best things. Paul challenges us to be intentional about what we allow to dominate our thinking.

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

               Paul’s words offer us a filter through which to evaluate what we allow into our heart. When confronted by some message we can ask these probing questions. Is this true? Is this noble? Is this right? Is this pure? Is this lovely? Is this admirable? Is this excellent? Is this praiseworthy? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then we need to shut the door to that message. Don’t let it in. Don’t give it space in your garden.

               At the end of Paul’s challenge, he tells us to think about such things. The word we have translated think can also be translated ruminate or meditate on these things. I like that image. If you are like me, you tend to chew on things, especially negative or hurtful things. Paul tells us to change our diet. We need to intentionally chew on the things that will lift us up not the things that will tear us down.

               Let me ask a couple of important questions. What are you intellectually and emotionally consuming on a regular basis? What are you reading or listening to on a pod cast? What are you watching on TV or the internet? What seeds are you planting in your garden?

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

 

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