Spring is here, and I couldn’t be happier! After a long, cold winter, my heart yearns for warmer weather, for trees to bud, and flowers to bloom. I don’t think I would do very well living in the colder regions of the country with longer winter seasons. I am so thankful to be a southern girl from Alabama.
Recently, after being fully retired for a couple of years, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me to work at a home furnishings market. This was definitely a God thing, and I am thrilled to be working in home furnishings and home decor, which I did for about 30 years. It happened quickly in late February. In early March, we worked long days getting ready for a reopening after a renovation. So, spring clean-up in my little yard got pushed very late.
Last week was perfect weather, so I got to work in the garden several days. As I began to clean up, I realized how late I was to cut back my hydrangeas. I usually trim them in late February, when no new growth has started, but here it is April 1st, and the dead limbs were hanging everywhere with new leaves shooting forth. The new leaves were also nipped by frost, so I began to think they may not bloom this year; they may just have leaves and no blooms. As I began to prune away, I heard the Lord whisper, “dead things hinder life.”
As the plant is sprouting new growth, without pruning the dead limbs, it is wasting energy on the dead and failing to give the best nourishment to the new growth. When dead limbs weaken and break, they can cause injury to the plant. It can become a haven for disease and attract pests.
Every time we look closely at God’s beautiful nature, we get a glimpse of how our lives are woven into every aspect of it.
In His Word, He tells us that when we are saved, “old things are passed away and behold all things become new.” Colossians 3:3 states this:
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
As we understand that being born again, we no longer live to the carnal man, which is the flesh, ” for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
For a Christian to grow and be transformed, it is a daily taking off of the dead things and putting on the things of the spirit. As we grow in the spirit, we will bloom forth with love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, meekness, longsuffering, that Christ himself planted in us.
We were never intended to carry the load of the dead; we are to flourish and prosper as a new creature. Christ alone carried that load to the cross once and forever.
About 15 years ago, there was a popular series on television called “The Walking Dead.” It was about a virus that brought the dead back to being zombies. It was such a gross state of being, with no conscience and an aggressive animal instinct. Wandering constantly for their next prey of the human fix, to do over and over again, just to survive in total misery. Living, but dead, held in chains of nothingness.
As I reflect on this TV movie, I see so many similarities to a world of people who live as the walking dead, with no direction, poor, wandering souls looking for the next thing to survive, that eventually grips their existence.
My heart grieves for those without freedom from chains of bondage, who are being held prisoner in this flesh.
My prayer is that through Christ you may be able to break away from the fetters that hold you tight.
Christ came that we might have life abundantly. We die daily to the things of this flesh and are renewed by the power of His resurrection.
The Bible teaches us not to be entangled with the yoke of our past life (those are dead things) but to press on toward the mark of the high calling of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Praying we overcome daily and grow in His grace.
Till He comes,
Diane Mann
Lean Into Jesus Ministries
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