Weeding

In my area we can garden year round. I've been busy working in the yard to keep ahead of a winter weed what we call Velcro Weed. It sticks to you, your gloves, and clothes. If you do not pull it in time; seeds stick to you as well as scatter through out the flower beds and grass causing more work the next winter. (I've spent time picking the sticky seeds off pants and shoelaces all the while contemplating throwing the pants and shoes in the garbage can.)

Velcro Weed is an example of how something well established is hard to eradicate. If I let it remain in the garden it will stick to everything in its path, smothering some plants as it grows and then finally when I've about given up, the heat causes it to go dormant for 7 months or so.

Sin is the same way. If we justify it, excuse it, refuse to acknowledge it, fail to confess or repent, it will stick to everything in its path. Sin can smother. We need to nip sin in the bud before it takes over our lives. Over the years I've not only sinned, I've listened to Christians who stumbled and those who fell. The difference is those who stumbled repented when the sin was a thought or they had not fully acted on it yet. Those who fell didn't stop until the sin encompassed every area of their life and brought destruction.

Weeding, pruning, watering, and feeding the garden bring health and vibrancy to it just as confessing, repenting, and time in the Word and prayer bring health and vibrancy to us. In Mark 4, Jesus says:

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

I do not want to be rocky ground or a thorny patch, I want to be good soil. I want to hear the Word of God, receive it, and live it out in my life. Back to weeding in the garden and in my heart.