Once again, God has used my garden to teach me another lesson about weeding. Today I was weeding my garden. Some weeds were easy to pull up by the root, while others were so hard that I had to fight to get them out. Then there were some that I had to use a shovel and find a way to get to the bottom of the weed to take it out. At one point, I had sweat pouring off me, and I had to stop and go in and rest. That is when God spoke to me about weeding.
Some sins are easy to spot, and we quickly seek God’s help to eradicate them from our lives. Some sins are buried deep down and become a part of our daily lives. We see them and know that we need to deal with them. However, we also know it will be hard to stop, so we clean it up at the surface level. Like in my garden, it would have been easy to pull the leaves off the weeds but leave the root in. Yet, I knew if I did, that weed would keep returning until I dealt with it.
Now, you may be thinking I don’t have any sin that I deal with like that. That is when we need to realize that hidden feelings that we often don’t think about as sins, jealousy, bitterness, worry, and anger, are all considered sinful behavior. God states it clearly in Galatians 5:19-21
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
These sins can be hidden so deep down that you don’t think about them until they appear in the most unexpected place.
We must allow God to search our hearts and minds. Ask him to grab those thoughts and actions by the root and pull them out of our lives. He is the Master gardener. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul tells us how to go about doing this:
“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We need to remove the weeds so that the fruits of the Spirit will have room to blossom.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
I pray that you will take the time and seek God and allow Him to search your Hearts.
Following His Lead 