Anyways early in the season I have been busy picking weeds so that I have some clear ground to work with. If you've ever picked weeds you've been able to curse with me the day that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and turned from God's plan for them and in turn God gave mankind the constant reminder that life was supposed to be better by giving us weeks! Really God, weeds? Well I guess it has worked because every time I pick a weed I hate my humanity and I look forward to the day that I will be restored to my original purpose to enjoy God's unmistaken glory forever.
But weeds remind me of sin. You know those pesky dandelions that give your lawn such beautiful color for but a brief moment and how if you pick the heads off they are still there. You also know that if you take the time to get the root of the plant that it so often breaks off and it just kills you to know that another one will soon grow from that root that is now out of reach without the redecoration of your lawn. It never fails to remind me, with dandelions as well as many other weeds, that their purpose is to grow faster than anything else can and to choke anything around it that competes for it's sunlight and soil. That's why we don't like them! That's why weeds are such a bad thing to have around. It's amazing that the same purpose lies in sin. The purpose of sin, in all it's types, is to grow faster than anything else around it and to choke out anything that competes for more attention than what it gets! And sin so often does choke out the things around it. Joy. Delight. Pleasure. Love. Faithfulness. Freedom. Shalom. It's the weeds in my life that choke out God's glory revealed in me.
Sometimes we've been able to pluck off the head of this sin in our lives or have even taken the time to dig out most of the root but if there is anything left of that weed be sure that it will come back to the surface over time. So true. Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people (Eph 5:3). Be sure that your sin will find you out (Num 32:23)!
There have been times that I have only weeded my garden from the surface and haven't bothered going to the root and it looks good for the time, but soon it is all infested once again. It's when we take the time to dig up the whole problem, stick it in a place where it cannot thrive and throw it away that the problem is truly gone. I dig up my weeds, stick them on my cement pad in the sun for a little while and then throw them in the trash to get rid of them, sweep up what's left and think of them no more.
If we confess to God that we have sin in our life that is choking Him out then He will overpower them in us that will rid them from our lives and He will purify us from anything and everything unholy (1 John 1:9) So give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you (1 Peter 5:7). God never created me to have weeds in my garden but he did give me the constant reminder that there will be a day when all the weeds will be gone and I will be with Him forever. In some kind of strange way I thank God for the weeds in my garden. I thank him for the reminder that a new day is coming and in that day there will be great rejoicing for there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more weeds!
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