“Lord, place me in my garden”

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. I hope you will as well.

I would like to share with you today the fact that God has placed great dreams and potential within you!

God planted a garden… there He put the man whom He had formed.
Genesis 2:8 KJV

Before God put Adam into the garden, He "formed" him. There's a process of preparation God takes us through in order to make us what we need to be. But preparation takes time. God must deal with our inconsistencies, personality defects, areas of distrust, unresolved childhood issues, scars, flaws, etc. How long does it take? Only God knows.

Admit it; even at your age you still recognize some childish ways in yourself. Anybody else would have given up on you, but God has a plan and He's committed to it. We should all wear a sign that says: "Work in progress. If you hire me, you need to know that. If you marry me, you need to know that."

The Bible says the Lord "formed man out of the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7 NKJV). What's God working with? Dirt! And the tools He uses to form you are the experiences you go through in life. They shape and alter you. And the more you keep trying to have it your way, the longer the process takes. It may take you five years to learn to quit people-pleasing, or ten years to stop feeling sorry for yourself, or twenty years to stop going back and reliving your childhood. All the while God is telling you, "Stop it," and you're saying, "Yeah, I know. I'm going to do better." Then finally a crisis happens and the truth hits you. At that point you say, "You know what? I'm going to forget those things which are behind and start reaching for those things which are before" (Philippians 3:13).

God planted a garden… there He put the man whom He had formed. (Genesis 2:8) NKJV
What does it mean to plant? To bury seeds beyond human view so that they germinate and eventually produce fruit. In God's plan for your life, He's planted blessings you experience over time. Just because you walk out into a field and don't see a crop, doesn't mean the seeds aren't there; God has planted things in your life that will come to fruition at different times.

It's amazing that God would plant. Why would He go to such trouble when He could just speak a word and create it? Think of the love, the personal involvement of the Creator of the universe, as He stoops down and plants blessings to come up at different seasons in your life. Everything God has for you hasn't come up yet, so you can't give up, or walk away and say, "That's all there is." No, God's got so much planted that you haven't yet seen or experienced. You're still becoming what He planted. Knowing that reinforces your faith that it will happen. It also means God believes in you - even when you don't believe in yourself.

There are talents in you that haven't been discovered and dreams that haven't been fulfilled. That's what the battle is about! The devil is fighting you over your destiny. He knows what's been planted in you and he's trying to kill the seed. Don't let him. You're not the person you'll be six months or six years from now, because there's a time factor; everything doesn't come to harvest at the same time. You have to have faith and patience, otherwise you'll miss what God has for you.

Notice, God placed the man in the garden, "eastward in Eden"
(Genesis 2:8 NKJV). It's not enough to be in the garden, you've got to be in the right location. You must pray, "Lord, place me in my garden."

You learn a lot by raising children. You're older and wiser, saying, "Don't do that. Don't go there." But you can't cut through the process. Children have to stumble, because that's how they learn to walk and find their way. Maybe you yourself worked at several jobs before figuring out what you were supposed to do. That's because you weren't 'placed' yet. At some point, if you're wise, you begin to pray, "Lord, don't let me spend my life trying stuff, place me!"

You can be in the right place and not know it - because the place has been planted, not created! Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's (fast food chain), was adopted at six weeks old. When he was five his adoptive mother died and his early years were spent moving from state to state while his adoptive father looked for work. He recalls being ashamed of not having a decent pair of shoes to wear. Imagine: a school dropout, wearing shoes that don't fit, working as a waiter - but he has a six-billion-dollar business inside him. It doesn't matter where you start, it just matters where you finish. You need to look in the mirror and announce, "There's something in me that hasn't come out yet. God, help me to be steadfast until You pull out of me what You planted in me." Don't let anyone convince you that you're a failure because you don't wear the right shoes, or have it all together right now. God has a place in mind for you. Just walk with Him and He'll get you there. Blessings!

Pastor Rusty