Garden Weeds

One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones, and then passed the vineyard of a lout; They were overgrown with weeds, thick with thistles, all the fences broken down. I took a long look and pondered what I saw; the fields preached me a sermon and I listened: "A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, with poverty as your permanent houseguest!" (Proverbs 24:30 The Message)

Wouldn’t you know it! You wake up one morning and look in the mirror and what do you see… yea, it’s a weed growing out of your left ear! I know, I know, it’s Thursday and you just went to church on Sunday and now this. There’s no rest is there!?

Every time you turn around there pops out something else to work on in your life. Some days its thistles (that’s on those days when you are all grumpy and mad tempered, all because you won’t forgive someone, and so you become kind of prickly). On other days you see these big ugly rocks in your life (that’s when your heart has gotten hard because of the naughty things you’ve been doing, and there’s just no way you are going to repent). And then there are those fences (fences and walls keep out bad stuff and keep you from doing bad stuff, that’s the Word of God) yep, those fences need attention, but… as you yawn again you think, ‘I’ll read the Bible some other day…, ‘I mean, it’s just not cool to be caught reading the Bible, I mean, who does that! [And yes, that is the problem… folks are living without a compass…]

Well, you probably should read and absorb, and live by faith what the good book says because it you don’t then all kinds of ugly things will start appearing. Like weeds, thistles, fleas, and who knows what!

I mean, come on… you eat every day to feed your body. You brush your teeth, to get some of the food out and to show your beautiful white teeth on the rare occasions when you might smile… you take a shower… you do all of that every day because you need to. But, what are you doing for your heart and your soul? Are you feeding and taking care of it? Maybe you just want to look good on the outside and you’ve never thought of the inside much… well, God sees everything… and I mean everything! And you know what, he sees a broken down garden in our lives because of a lack of maintenance… remember the old saying… “anything worth having is worth fighting for” … are you fighting back the weeds that are growing in your life? Do you fight against fear, shame, failure, despair, heartache, and loneliness (just to name a few ugly growths in people’s hearts).

So what do you do when a weed is growing out of your ear? Well, pull out the sword of the Spirit (the Bible) and cut that thing off, please… it’s unsightly! Then start doing some weeding in your life. A good place to start is where you are right now. First, God says, stop what you are doing “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). First, do you believe there is a God or not? The Bible says “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:20). It sounds like God has really tried to get our attention but we’ve been snoozing. Yep, the Bible speaks of that too, “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:14).

You know it sounds like I’m in the poor shape that I’m in because of… yep, my own doing. Yet, like you there is the greatest of hopes. Neither you nor I need to stay in a broken down garden. Christ left us a manual to follow on how to kill the weeds, fix what needs fix-en, and clear out our lives the hatred, arrogance, deceit, lies, and hypocrisy… again, just naming a few. Christ will fix you up, he will help you with your garden, with your heart if you by faith and trust turn your heart towards him.