Soul Soil
FEBRUARY 27, 2024

The Lord God planted a garden.
Genesis 2:8

Recommended Reading: John 15:1-4
Faith is the soil in which all the other virtues grow. In 2 Peter 1:5-7, we’re told to have soul soil of faith and to let it produce increasing amounts of virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.

If you’ve done any gardening, you know weeds come up naturally, but crops and flowers have to be cultivated. Adam and Eve were given the task of tending to the Garden of Eden, and we’re charged with tending to our own souls under the watchful care of the Master Gardener (John 15:1).

A preacher of yesterday, Mark Guy Pearse, said, “Gardens are made out of waste places…. Before the King can make a garden, He must own the land…. [But] if it be the King’s garden the King Himself will come to it.”

Let’s strive to be fruitful! Once we believe and have faith, we should devote ourselves to growing deeper in that faith, abiding in Christ, being fruitful, and producing the other virtues God loves.

Jesus says to us, “My son, give Me thine heart.” He wants the heart, not because it is a garden, but that He may make a King’s garden of it.
Mark Guy Pearse