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Our Father The Gardner

Yesterday, we talked about allowing ourselves to face and feel our emotions, inviting the Holy Spirit to bring healing and comfort to areas of pain and brokenness. It is equally important for us to allow our Father to correct and adjust thoughts, feelings and emotions that are out of alignment with His Kingdom. This is not the same as ignoring or suppressing those emotions. It is submitting them to the Lordship of Christ so that His will is done.

The passage in John 15 is an illustration of abiding in Christ, the Source of true life. But we could also take the branches in the scripture to mean thoughts or feelings. This gives us a beautiful picture of God the Father as the gardener of our souls. So often, our thoughts and feelings spiral out of control like an unruly, overgrown tree that can be a hazard to its surroundings and limited in its fruitfulness. The job of the gardener is to prune the branches— our thoughts and feelings that do not produce good fruit—so that the whole tree can flourish.

So often, we try in our own strength to prune the tree ourselves. We try to control our emotions, and there is certainly value in emotional maturity and the ability to regulate our feelings so that we do not react or lash out. But the only way to true wholeness and health in our soul is to invite our Father to be the Gardener of our hearts—spotting that weed of resentment that we didn't even know was there, trimming an overgrown section that began as wisdom but bloomed into fear, cutting off that branch of despair that is too high up for us to reach.

Let me encourage you today to spend some time with our Father. He is so ready and willing to help you with your emotions in your journey of wholeness. Your heart and soul are precious to Him, so you can be assured that He will prune with the greatest of care.

Prayer: Father, I give you my whole heart. I invite you to have free rein over all of my thoughts and emotions. With Your sovereign surgical touch, cut off any branches of emotions that do not bear the fruit of the Spirit. I declare that I am stepping into greater fruitfulness and prosperity, even as my soul prospers (3 John 1:2).