Weeds In Our Lives

Webster’s Dictionary defines “weeds” as “ a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially : one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants”.  Having pulled buckets full in the past few weeks, I can attest to the fact they grow vigorously and will choke out the more desirable plants. In fact, they will take over a garden in a very short time and the plants, bushes and grass you planted will be overgrown.  

As I sat on my rolling stool, pulling up a multitude of weeds of various kinds from around our rose bushes and out of our day lilies, I wondered why God would allow plants that we consider of no value and a nuisance to invade our gardens.  I found the answer in:

Genesis 3:17-18 (NIV)17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’“Cursed is the ground because of you;  through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,   and you will eat the plants of the field.”

Pondering this scripture as I pulled out those obnoxious and unwanted plants, I began to see a parallel between the weeds in our garden and the sins in our lives. Because weeds and sin are the results of sin by Adam and Eve, both will be a part of our lives until we go Home or Jesus comes back to get us.  

Does this mean we have to live with sin in our lives?  No, for like we pull out the weeds in our gardens and throw them away, we need to pull out the sins in our lives and ask for forgiveness and throw them away.  

This is not an easy task for as we pull weeds, we see some that have roots that run deep and we have to get a trowel of shovel to get all of them out of the ground.  It is almost impossible to get all the roots and within days, they will sprout and grow again. Is sin not like that in our lives? We allow them to grow deep within our hearts and it takes the Holy Spirit to give us the  power to dig them out and throw them away.

There are other weeds that have shallow roots and are easy to pull up but the roots spread over a wide area and they will be back in a few days with all their “weed friends”. These are like those sins that don’t seem to be too serious, easy to overlook, and often become habits in our lives.  We know they are there but just ignore them and like the weeds with shallow roots they spread throughout our hearts and will eventually become larger sins and multiply rapidly, taking over our lives.

What do we do?  First we must recognize that we have these sins, realize they are separating us from our Heavenly Father, repent and ask Him for forgiveness.  He is always ready to forgive and forget our sins.

Pulling out the sins or weeds in our lives clears the ground for God to replace them with His gifts as found in:

Colossians 3:

12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Our lives will then be like beautiful gardens but will have to be tended carefully to be sure the sins or weeds do not take over and destroy the fellowship we have with the Father and rob us of the beauty of God in us.

We have to pull the weeds in our gardens daily to keep them under control and fill the empty spaces with good plants.  The same is true of sins in our lives - we have to pull them out each day and replace them with God’s Words found in the scriptures, cover our hearts with the Holy Spirit, and water our lives with prayer.  God is in control of all our days and we have to let Him reveal those sins that separate us from Him, pull them out of our lives, and replace them with the fruits of the spirit.

Prayer-

Lord, give me your wisdom to recognize sin in my life.  Give me your power to pull them out, repent, and ask your forgiveness.  Thank you for always being willing to forgive my sins when I confess them and please give me the strength to fill my life with your love and goodness to keep sin from taking root in my life.

Amen and amen