Day 2 –Types of Gardens

“So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.” Genesis 3:23

Since humanity’s eviction from Eden, we are commanded to cultivate the ground from which we were created. But not all the world can be one big rose garden… The Bible points to several different “gardens” with each its own physical and spiritual meaning.

• Garden – a plot of ground commonly with ornamental plants, trees, flowers, and shrubs (usually close to a house or dwelling)

• Fields – an area of open land with crops or pastures bounded by hedges

• Groves – a field with the same type of trees

• Vineyards – an area of land allocated for growing grapes

We all cultivate different ground areas God gave us. For example, if I own an Olive grove, I would know and understand how to grow olives. But I would not know how to grow wheat in my neighbor’s field. It is the same with our lives and ministries, they are not all the same and there are different ground areas we tend. I’d like to think that when God looks over the Body of Christ, He sees a colorful array of different areas of this world being cultivated by those He chose to put there. And though we all have our own allotted area to work in, it is still His Garden.

Prayer: Father, please help me to understand the ground of my ministry so I can tend, watch, and cultivate it under Your commands and promises so that it flourishes as part of the Body of Christ. May our ministries be a sweet fragrance to You. Thank You, our Father, for creating different areas for us to work in to cover the whole earth and minister to Your people. In Jesus’s Name, I pray, Amen.