Devotions with Pastor Donny Woodbridge

A Gardener of Love
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This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:9-11

For over three decades I have had the privilege of watching my Father-in-law Bampy Clifford as both a flower gardener and a farmer. Even at the ripe old age of ninety he is still trying to learn how to get better at his craft and adapt his strategies in the face of changing challenges. I have also gotten to watch him apply these same practices in ministering to the spiritual lives of those around him..

Any good gardener or farmer knows that the conditions in which you plant determine the quality of the harvest. Certain plants can’t survive certain weather, even as other plants won’t take root in certain types of soil. A good farmer needs more than just good intentions to receive a good harvest; they also need knowledge and wisdom.

Interestingly, Paul seems to believe that these two gifts are also what our love needs if it is going to be effective. Rather than simply throwing around indiscriminate love with merely good intentions, Paul prays that our love will become abundant in knowledge and insight. Such a love is effective because it helps us to decide what really matters.

Our most faithful expressions of love are those acts that are filled with wisdom and discernment. Love that considers the most helpful words to say to our friend who is hurting, love that leverages our own resources to benefit those in need around us, love that listens carefully to the voices of others to learn what our knowledge is lacking. Such a love not only fills our own lives but also overflows into a fruitfulness that feeds those around us.

Let's pray that God would grant us the depth of insight that we need today and in the days ahead!

God, I pray that you will make my love more insightful and wiser so that I might be able to decide what really matters. I want to not only love much, but love well.
I pray that you would give me a discerning love that might grow into a multiplying love, overflowing to everyone around me.
Amen.

Pastor Donny