Watering
God's constant care and love are essential for our spiritual growth and well-being, and we should respond to His care by allowing it to produce the abundant fruit of a healthy and thriving spirit.
F.B. Meyer emphasizes the constant care and nurturing that God provides to our spirits, likening it to the essential watering of a vineyard in a harsh climate. He illustrates how God's love refreshes us in moments of temptation and discipline, often in subtle ways that we may overlook. Meyer encourages us to recognize the myriad ways God waters our souls, from gentle reminders to profound insights, ensuring we remain vibrant and fruitful. He concludes with a call to produce abundant spiritual fruit that pleases our divine Gardener.
Text
"I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"
(Isa. 27:3).
In the scorching Oriental heat the vineyard needs incessant watering, else the vines fail. And our spirits are equally dependent on the refreshment which only God's tender love can afford. The heat of temptation and of sore discipline is so oppressive, that we must faint beneath either one or the other, except for the alleviating succor which our faithful God is constantly administering.
Every moment--literally every time the eye twinkles--God is watering us. We have become so accustomed to it, that we hardly realize how much we owe to it. Sometimes by the gentle distillation of dew, that gathers almost imperceptibly on our spirits, and we hardly know whence or how it has come. Sometimes by the touch of a moistening sponge, applied by the very hand of God. Sometimes by a shower of grace. By a text suggested to our memory; a holy thought; the look, or act, or word of some companion; a paragraph in a paper; a sentence in a book--God waters us, and we become fresh and green, where the leaf showed signs of becoming shriveled and sere.
How blessed is life like this! In such hands--watched and guarded by such care--nurtured with such tenderness! May the result in each of us be--not the disappointment of wild grapes, but--the abundant clusters that will make glad the great Husbandman of our souls.
Sermon Outline
- God's Constant Care
- Dependence on God's Love
- The Need for Refreshment
- God's Alleviating Succor
Key Quotes
“I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” — F.B. Meyer
“Every moment--literally every time the eye twinkles--God is watering us” — F.B. Meyer
“May the result in each of us be--not the disappointment of wild grapes, but--the abundant clusters that will make glad the great Husbandman of our souls” — F.B. Meyer
Application Points
- We should acknowledge and appreciate God's constant care and love in our lives.
- We should allow God's care to produce the abundant fruit of a healthy and thriving spirit.
- We should respond to God's care by trusting in His faithfulness and provision.