Weeds.
I have weeds growing in my garden.
I don’t want them there. Despite my best efforts to defeat them, they grow up effortlessly from the soil as if that is where they are meant to be.
I have plowed them under the earth a time or two, still they come back. I have used man made tools to dig them from the soil, still more grow. I have sprayed them with poison, yet they live. I have plucked them from the moist ground with my very hands, and somehow, they return, as if there is nothing I can do to prevent them.
Some are large, tall, deep rooted into the ground. They have been ignored far too long because I am too tired, or too busy, or the weather is not quite right. They begin to take over, stealing the nourishment intended for my crop, slowly killing the good fruit which was meant to harvest.
Some are small, sneaky. They seem harmless initially, but they too will grow to steal what was planned to be good.
I have weeds in my garden. The funny thing is my heart, much like my garden, often grows weeds.
Weeds.
Some are small, starting out as a bad habit, a negative thought, just a slight lack of trust in my Savior. You know nothing “major”, nothing “life altering”.
But, when left untouched they grow up, just like the weeds in my garden. They will take over. They slowly entangle themselves with the good fruit, stealing their nourishment, and snuffing out anything good that was left. And suddenly all that’s left is weeds.
As hard as I try to control them, to kill them, to plow them underneath the surface where no one can see, they will still be there; a part of my broken self, my broken journey.
Yet, as I watch the weeds in my garden, untouched, slowly killing my good harvest, I am reminded that I must be responsible to combat the weeds in my heart.
My hard hardheartedness, selfishness, anger, lack of forgiveness, discontentment, lust, greed, gossip….. the list could go on. They are all weeds that I must intentionally attend to. I must not let them grow up and take over the good that God is trying to do in me.
You must not either. This is my plea for you to look at your heart. What weeds have you ignored for too long? What small thing are you allowing to grow?
Today, you can take care of it, with God’s help. He is good at plucking weeds.
Psalm 139: 23-24 “Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
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