He Careth for You

I love Charles Spurgeon. He was a British, Baptist preacher and the pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for 38 years. Spurgeon is widely called the “Prince of Preachers” and his constant use of ecological imagery is powerful.

As we move into fall I have re-read his sermon, “The Lord’s Own View of His Church and People,” which I have loved for some time. At the center of Spurgeon’s preaching was the constant refrain that God is never too far from his people.

You are a garden, and a garden is a tender thing, soon destroyed; but the Lord, who planted you, has seen to your protection and provision. A garden in the East is a very needful place. One day’s burning sun might suffice to wither all its verdure; but then the Lord has declared of his church, “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” “I the Lord to keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” A garden is a dependent thing, requiring perpetual care from the husbandman; and that care the church of God shall have, for it is written, “He careth for you.” Jesus says, “My father is the husbandman”; and surely that is enough. 

In a garden weeds spring up; and, alas! in the church, and in our hearts, the weeds of sin are plentiful; but there is one who will take care to pluck up evil growths, and cut away all rank shoots, that none of the precious plants may be choked or overgrown. In all ways every single plant, however feeble, shall be tended with all-sufficient skill.

It is so great to know that wherever you are planted, God will care for you right there!