Water the Grass

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8

Today I saw a T-shirt that said, “If the grass is greener on the other side, water your grass.” This is a simple thought that could make a profound difference if we think about it and apply it to our lives.

If someone else’s grass is looking greener than ours, it’s usually because of envy. It doesn’t just look better for them, we want it for ourselves. The only time that we’re safe wanting something someone else has is when we don’t want theirs or want it because it is theirs.

I tend to think along spiritual lines. I heard a sermon a few weeks ago and the Pastor started with the question, “What do you think of when you think of the fall?” He was thinking about colored leaves, a new school year, new clothes, and changed weather but I was thinking Adam, Eve, and the Garden. I realized I was off track and adjusted to hear his point.

When I saw this T-shirt suggesting that the envious person water her own grass I remembered a testimony I heard given last week. A young man who had been raised in the church had made a profession of faith as a young child. In his teens he realized he didn’t have the peace nor experience the joy of others in his congregation. He wanted it. He didn’t say that he envied it but he definitely saw something he could have and didn’t.

In a way he decided to water his grass. He thought that if he only had more knowledge that he would have the peace and joy that they lived in. So, he bought Christian books, commentaries, sermons of late, great writers of the faith and he read them. He spent a summer trying to attain enough knowledge to get to a point of satisfaction in his faith.

In all of that reading he came across a Bible verse in one of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s sermons that made him think about his faith and how it was what was lacking in his life. His testimony seemed to be that once he placed real faith in Jesus Christ and trusted HIM for his peace and joy he began to experience it.

He watered his grass with the Word of God and became a new creature in Christ. He no longer looked to what others had in Christ but could glorify God in what he had given him.

Sometimes it seems like God is doing for others and not for us. We look at people who don’t even live for the Lord and wonder why their lives seem so blessed when a devoted Christian seems to be going through difficult times. Then we see a verse like Proverbs 23:17 that says, “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day” and we wonder how to do that. Now I see that we need to be reminded to water our grass with the Word of God.

The Word of God is the Bread of Life for people – it is what feeds us when we are spiritually malnourished. It is what brought this young man into a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ and it is what keeps that relationship alive. It rights wrong thinking like envy and it reminds us of truths about our Lord that we tend to forget like Psalm 11:7, “For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.”

So, if you are looking over a fence and the grass is looking greener over there – pull out your Bible and water your own grass. That grass will eventually wither but God’s Word will stand forever.