How Does Your Garden Grow?

The bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming.... and the weeds are growing!!

Have you ever watched someone weeding a garden? They dig up, root out, yank, prune, clip, crop, pare, shear, trim, lop, thin, eliminate... You get the idea. All of those words create a picture of actively, vigorously, getting rid of something unwanted! As I was out working in the flower bed this morning (a good place for thinking, by the way), I was reminded of words I had just read earlier today in Deuteronomy 12 where Moses is giving the Israelites instructions on what to do as they went into the Promised Land. They were to utterly destroy, tear down, smash, burn, cut down, and obliterate the symbols and altars of other gods. That doesn't sound very tolerant you may be thinking. What about live and let live? But not only does God want our undivided loyalty, He knows how easy it is for us to be ensnared by other things that turn our hearts away from Him.

Out in the garden, I was working at ripping out the weeds. I could not be one bit tolerant of those weeds as it doesn't take much at all for them to grow back! I also know that weeding once won't get rid of them. This is a neverending job! After all, it is their natural habitat and they were there first! They don't need any nurturing, just a little neglect on my part. They won't die off and go away if I just ignore them; instead they'll thrive and choke out the flowers that I've planted. And the result of my neglect won't be hidden. Not only will I know it and see it, but so will everyone else as the flower bed is situated right on the front corner of our lot.

God wants me to be actively vigorously rooting out the weeds -- like anger, impatience, unkindness, pride, selfishness, just to name a few -- that grow in my life. He knows....and I know....how fast they can grow and how easily they will entangle, ensnare, take over and choke out the good things.

It's not enough to just weed the garden though. It's necessary to follow up by planting something else in the empty space. Then there are weed barriers to put down, watering, feeding, fertilizing, and the never-ending vigilant weeding.

There is a similar idea in the words of Moses to the Israelites. He used the words seek, come, bring, eat, rejoice. And just like the Israelites, I am to seek the Lord, to come to Him, to bring Him my offerings (my heart), to feed upon His Word, and to rejoice in His blessings! ....And to vigilantly weed!!!

"...let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1