Today I would like to talk about spiritual gardening. Have you ever planted a grapevine or any other plant that needs a trellis?
Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches, lets read it in
Jonh 15. 5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jonh 15.5
For a grapevine to grow it needs a trellis that will help it grow up and bear good fruits.
In the same way, we also need a structure that will help in our growth. We can call this structure “rule of life”.
Did you know that the word “rule” comes from the Greek word for trellis?
So, as opposed to thinking of “rules” as strict laws or restriction, we can think about them as guidelines, or structure on which to grow. Without a trellis for support, climbing vines and branches never reach their potential. The same is true for us.
Everyone needs the “rule of life” for structure and growth. It can change as we find what “works” in our context. But at this moment it’s something that provides some direction for growth.
The preaching of today is : Rule of Life
If we want to grow in your relationship with God, if you desire to serve him well, to growth, you will need to have a structure that it will help you to do that. We need to combine spiritual practices that will help us to grow. I mean, build good habits that will help us to have a stronger faith.
We were called to be a copy of Jesus, to live like him. He is our model.
Most Christians are not intentional; we tend to be functional instead. We live our lives in autopilot. We don’t pay attention to what we’re doing.
Some of your rules probably are – church on Sunday, cell meeting during the week, prayer meetings and for some 10 minutes of prayer and bible reading before going to bed or in the morning.
But do you see yourself as a fruitful grapevine? Are you fully connected to Jesus?
How to fight the strong current of the twenty-first-century world that we are leaving in? We live in a pagan world, surrounded by worldly habits that instead of bringing us closer to God they push us further away from him.
If you love God and you want to grow spiritually you need to make better choices in how you are going to use your time.
Daniel is an example in the bible. He lived in a country that did not believe in God. The Babylonians used to seek the stars and images and practice many things that were against God’s law. But Daniel was able to keep himself faithful to God even though he was working for the king of Babylon.
Why?
Because he had a structure, a rule of life, a trellis that he could hold onto. We know from Daniel chapter 6 that he uses to pray every day 3 times. He also renounced certain activates, such as eating the king’s contaminated food – Daniel 1
How about you? Do you have a structure, a trellis? Do you have good habits?
In the book of acts chapter 2 we see a very strong and bright church. As we read, we can understand why they were so full of life. They had a very stable structure, good habits.
Let’s read Acts 2.46, 47
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
They used to meet daily for prayer, worship and eating together. For first century believers their lives were around God 24/7. They would stop 3 times a day to pray and seek God. They were always in fellowship with their beloved ones and so on.
Those good habits strengthened them and later when the persecution came instead of denying the Lord Jesus, they went to preach the gospel to others.
Nowadays Christians have a very sallow relationship with God because they rely only on the Sunday service, and some people the cell meetings. Many are still spiritual babies waiting for food from their leaders. It’s time to start learning how to feed by yourselves! It’s Time to produce your own fruits, because you will have to present them to Jesus at the end.
If we love God, we need to invest our time and build strong relationships with him.
Why should we build this trellis or rules of life? I would like to tell a secret: a life with rules leads to a life full of the love and presence of God because we are actively choosing Him instead the others things.
As we establish new habits or strengthen the good ones we already have, our whole life improves.
In the Christian literature there are many authors who teach about the rules of life and some of them say that there are at least four areas we need to look at:
1-Prayer or devotional
- Bible (meditation/study)
- Prayer
2-Rest
- Day of
- Sleeping
- Recreation/fun time
3-Work/activity
- Use your gifts to serve the body of Christ
- Care of physical body
4-Relationship
- Emotional health
- Family
- Friends
When we have good habits in all of these areas, when we strengthen these 4 areas of our lives, we grow and we will produce fruits for the Glory of God.
Remember Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, but what will aid us to bear fruits is the trellis or the rule of life.
We need to create a structure that will help us to stay fruitful and never lose the connection with Jesus, the vine.
Maybe your structure it is not stable enough because you don’t have good habits. Or maybe you tried changed but at some point you went back to your old habits.
I want to explain how habits work and how to build new ones.
Habit is an automatic behaviour.
How is it born? It is a process in our brain, a three-step loop.
- Trigger/cue – felling, place, person, a word, a sound
- Routine/Ritual- can be physical or mental or emotional
- Reward – pleasure, dopamine. Your brain will remember it if its good
Repetition is the way to form it. But you need to understand habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced. Our brain loves habits. Why? Because you spend less energy, you don’t need to think to do them.
20% of the oxygen that you breathe goes to your brain, of course it prefers using the minimum amount possible and stay within habits rather than spending energy thinking about them.
How to change a habit – 5 steps
- Make things easy, encourage the good cues. Make it harder for bad triggers to reach you. We need 20 seconds to make a decision.
If you want to build a new habit like reading for example, the book needs to always be close to you.
If you want to start exercising, your sports clothes need to be beside your bed when you wake up. A healthy option for food needs to be prepared in advance so you don’t go for junk food when you get hungry.
“smartphone vibrates with a new message, the brain starts anticipating the momentary distraction that opening an email provides. That expectation, if unsatisfied, can build until a meeting is filled with antsy executives checking their buzzing BlackBerrys under the table, even if they know it’s probably only their latest fantasy football results. (On the other hand, if someone disables the buzzing—and, thus, removes the cue—people can work for hours without thinking to check their in-boxes.)”
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg
- Develop a routine, do it many times until it becomes a habit. But your goals should not be too hard to achieve. If you want to start reading books, aim to read it for 10 min every day and increase it gradually. Always start for something that you like and it’s not too hard.
- Do not leave the reward only for the end. If you are on a diet, don’t reward yourself only when you lose all weight you aim for. But reward yourself weekly for the little victories you make.
People give up because there is no quick reward.
We need to find pleasure in our new habits.
Psl 1 says: 1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Matthew 6: 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
- Commitment with a group of people. When we give accountability, we tend to be more committed to our changes.
People you could be accountable to can be: your discipler or leader, your parents, a close friend, your therapist. Someone that you know and trust.
- Commit with the one who lives inside of you. We are temple of the Holy Spirit. He is our Lord and we are called to please him. I Co 6: 19, 20
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.
Remember the “rule of life”, the trellis, is the support for us to grow on and to produce good fruits. What are those fruits? They are the fruits of the Spirit.
Gal 5: 22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Final tips :
- Listen to your heart’s desires when discerning your Rule. God often speaks to us through them.
- Make sure your Rule includes some joy, play, and fun.
- Take baby steps. Don’t make your rule impossible to follow.
- Give yourself a lot of grace to experiment, engage in trial and error, and discover the yoke
that fits you and the season of life. This “trellis” is meant to free you not enslave you.
Reject perfectionism and heavy yokes that crush us.
- Figure out how much structure you need – a lot or a little.
Debra Farrington in her book, Living Faith Day by Day writes:
“Over the years I’ve also struggled with the amount of structure to build into a rule. People I respect deeply have detailed rules with set times for prayer, and so on. They tell me that if they don’t get up at 6:30 each morning and take a half hour of prayer time that they will never get to it during the day. But that doesn’t work for me. It makes my spiritual life into something to add to my to-do list, and it becomes a chore and not a blessing. Over the years I have found that my rule for prayer needs to be more open-ended. I am committed to praying daily, but how and when I do that varies from day-to-day.”
Conclusion
How is your Trellis?
How is your devotional life, Bible (meditation/study), Prayer?
Do you ever rest? Do you have a day of, a good night sleep and well spend time playing with your family?
Do you invest in work/activities? Do you use your gifts to serve the body of Christ, to care for your physical body?
How is your Relationships with family, friends and your relationship with yourself (Emotional health)?
All those points are part of a structure that needs to be stable and if it isn’t stable you will never bear fruits. Imagine a grapevine growing without a trellis. What is it going to happen with it fruits? They will be destroyed or never grow properly.
Do you feel stuck? Let’s pray now.
Father I pray for my brothers and sisters, help them develop their own trellis. Help them to start some changes, small changes that will bring real pleasure in their lives. I pray against all fear of change, I pray for courage to start new habits, healthy habits. Holy Spirit help them to grow both spiritually and emotionally.