Arms of Love (49 page)

Spend three minutes of quiet time thinking of God being for you and turning to you. Think about Him as the voice of a thunderous crowd, cheering you on, rooting for you. Think of Him as a loving Father, who loves despite all of what we are or have done, who is turning to you right now—reaching out, taking you in His arms, holding you close.

How difficult was it for you to be still with the above thoughts of God? Why?

What does it look like to you when God “turns to you”?

Prayer
: Oh Father, You have said in Your Word that I should call You Dad or Daddy, that I should come into Your presence knowing that You are thrilled to see me—even if I have done wrong. You love me, not because of who I am but because of who You are. Please let me feel You turning to me this day.

Day Four: “You Will Be Cultivated”

Author’s Insight
: The Yoder family cultivates their garden and orchard in preparation for growth and harvest. Similarly, God cultivates us in preparation. Cultivation, in its truest sense, involves turning over hardened ground, breaking through to new soil, scraping and marking the dirt to prepare for the seeds to come. It does not sound easy or pleasant for a garden—how much less pleasant does it seem for us? Who wants to face God as the Gardener cultivating our lives? We, in truth, would much rather stay as we are—we don’t want to be raked and harrowed. We are scared of what that process might mean if we turn our lives or a situation over to God—what is He going to do? How much is it going to hurt? But cultivation as preparation is necessary for new hope and new growth, and we can trust the nail-scarred hands of the Great Gardener.

Novel Question: Pick one of your favorite characters from the novel and consider how God cultivates their life and growth.

Draw a map of your daily life as if it were a garden. What are your crops of concern? Your responsibilities? Your thorns? Where is there hardened ground that needs to be worked?

Consider your struggles or “thorns” or even your hardened soil from the above map. What is keeping you from letting God cultivate these areas? Confess this to God and ask Him for strength and a true desire to have the soil of your life worked.

Prayer
: Dear Jesus, it is no mistake that Mary thought You to be the gardener of the cemetery when You had first risen from the grave and defeated death for us all. She saw You as what You are: the Gardener of Grace, the One who uses nail-scarred, gentle carpenter’s hands to hold me up as You work in these areas of my life that I surrender now to You. Please cultivate me in preparation for healthy growth and the receiving of more of Your abundant love.

Day Five: “You Will Be Sown”

Author’s Insight
: Lena sows her garden with care and forethought. She considers how best to lay out the crops and works in ways to add new seeds. The Bible says that “we are God’s field.” He works and labors over each of our individual lives as a master gardener plans and perfects his work. But we are not simply a “for show” garden or a garden that looks good on the outside but has serious blight in the heart of the plant. No, God wants us to be healthy down to our roots. So He cultivates and then He promises that we will be “sown.” We will have new seeds planted and nurtured in us, seeds that have the potential to change our lives, to give us more abundance and hope—seeds of strength to move forward into the Gardener’s hands.

Novel Question: When Lena prays while kneeling in the mulch, she wrestles to surrender the seeds of anger in her as an offering to the Lord and He helps her. When have you prayed to God about a “seed” of something in your life, be it good or bad, and heard His response?

One of the most important things to remember in this idea of sowing is that God is not the only one at work in your life. There is an enemy of our souls who also seeks to sow seeds in our minds and hearts. He is called the Deceiver and the Accuser. What are some “bad seeds” that are sown in your mind or heart right now? Anger? Hatred? Jealousy?

Now take a minute and turn these bad seeds over to the One who owns the garden of your life, who paid for it with His blood, who redeemed it for His glory. Confess these seeds to Him and ask Him to deliver you again and again when these ideas and thoughts might seek to take root in your life.

What are some good seeds that God is sowing in your life right now?

Prayer
: Dear Lord, Master Gardener of my life, help me to prepare to be sown for Your glory. Root out all seeds of sin from my life; help me to grow in Your grace, Your idea of love. Help me to be sown beyond all my limitations and expectations.

Week Three—God’s Arms of Love

“The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27
NASB
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Day One: The Eternal God

Author’s Insight
: One of the things that most of the characters in this novel wrestle with, in one way or another, is time. Whether it’s the past, worries about the future, or making decisions in the present, time influences life. This is true for most of us. We wish we hadn’t done something in the past, want something to change in the present, or perhaps have fears or concerns about the future. We live in linear time, but God does not. For God, all of time is an open story, so He understands our lives in the context of a whole, not a part of time. This allows Him, from His eternal perspective, to do what is best for us. God is without ending or beginning. His eternal gaze is graced by power that we cannot comprehend, but He is constantly working things out in our lives for the good, for His glory.