Genesis 2:15 (NKJV)

‘Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.’

God did not just put the man in the garden to eat and to enjoy; God gave him a clear job description: ‘to tend and keep the garden’. Life is not only about enjoyment; you need to know what is your definitive assignment from God. Knowing your assignment is what keeps you alive and functional. Work is godly and it is of God. God abhors a lazy man for we see that even in the garden of paradise, there was a task to be accomplished.

Do you know your function in your garden? Yes, there are fruits to be enjoyed but what are you tending? What are you caring for? Is it clear to you? Or are you tending someone else’s garden? There is a function for every Man within the sphere God has put him in. And to tend means to take careful care of something. The task given to you must be cared for tenderly and gently. The tragedy of life is that we could carelessly destroy what God gave us to tend. Are you tending your relationships? Are you tending the people around you? Are you diligently tending your day job, house job, schoolwork? Are you busy tending? Are you tending your spiritual life and your ministry tasks?

‘Lord, help me understand what I am to tend. Free me from the pursuit of enjoyments without the accompanying responsibility to tend the people and things you have assigned to me. Amen.’