N-P-K: Formula for gardening and praying

July 14, 2010 in: Devotions

Crabgrass has been making itself an uninvited and unwelcome visitor in my garden. It’s been so wet lately, the ground will not get dry, giving the weeds a healthy growth spurt and frustrating my efforts to hoe them out.

Strawberries from the garden earlier this year

Trying to beat the heat, and not altogether succeeding, I went out to the garden about 7:30 this morning and attacked crabgrass with my hoe. It’s not enough just to scrape the little invaders out of the ground. The plants can take up root somewhere else if they survive. I hoed the plants out, then turned them upside down to wither in the sun.

Killing the roots is the only way to destroy a weed, I observed, which reminded me of this devotional. Looking at the uprooted crabgrass, I realized that was a bit how I felt in a spiritual sense. As if  my roots, instead of being nurtured, were drying out. Battles which once didn’t seem so hard were getting the best of me.

Experience has taught me that God’s Word is the only source of nutrients for our roots. I reflected that it has been a busy summer and I’ve been disconnected from consistent Bible study.

After washing off the garden dirt, I pulled out a study guide for Philippians that I’d bought months ago with good intentions. In the introduction, author Elizabeth George wrote about a woman after God’s own heart:

One crucial way this desire can become reality is by nurturing a heart that abides in God’s Word. To do so means that you and I must develop a root system…

This must be just what I need! Today’s  study of Philippians didn’t start in that book, but in Acts, describing how the church there was started. Paul and Silas answered the “Macedonian call” to go to the region. They were led by the Holy Spirit to Philippi. On Sunday morning, they went to the riverbank, where a group of women were praying.

I was shocked to discover that the Philippian church, which was such a blessing in Paul’s life and led to a book of the Bible which has guided and inspired millions of Christians, was born because God moved in response to a women’s prayer meeting. The church grew because a businesswoman named Lydia used her skills to God’s glory.

It does matter what you and I do in those private moments. Time in prayer may change the future, and probably when you least expect it.

Farmers know that the essential nutrients for fertile soil are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, identified by the chemical symbols N-P-K.

It’s the same formula for believers: Need Praying Knees.

“Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.” Philippians 3:3-9