Today, I was outside with my roses. I am actually a pretty terrible flower gardener. But at my new house, there are a ton of leftover flowers from the previous owners (who were professional landscapers.)
They are mostly roses that happen to be right in front of my house. Due to lack of care on my part, they were beginning to look pretty sad and droopy. On top of that, they are growing into the walkway, so anyone who walks up to my front door gets attacked by bees, or thorns, or both.
I decided today that enough was enough. I threw on my garden gloves and began tackling the project without really knowing how to do it.
I was clipping away, shooing off some pretty disgusting insects, when I noticed a whole bunch of that awful, prickly, thistly stuff growing around one of the rose bushes. I was trying to get them out, but the roses were scratching my hands with their thorns! Even with garden gloves, there was no way I could get the weeds out from around the bushes. It was like the roses were protecting the weeds that were trying to kill them. That's when a verse popped into my head, "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy." - John 10:10.
While gardening, I thought about this analogy a little more. I came to the conclusion that weeds really have very little purpose - other than to steal nutrients, kill plants, and destroy the beauty of flower gardens. That's kind of like Satan, or "The Thief." He really only wants to steal from us, kill our joy, and destroy the things from God. He's like a nasty weed that grows in a beautiful garden that God, the Gardener, planted.
In fact, often times throughout Scripture, God compares us humans to plants. He tells us to "grow fruit," and calls us "the vines." If I take some liberties, I could say that we are like roses in my flower garden. God made us beautiful, unique, and full of life (just like the picture of my array of roses from the garden.) But Satan likes to come in and destroy the things of God by planting little weeds that grow into something monstrous.
We have a choice to protect those weeds or not. We can allow the Gardener to remove them permanently, or we could protect them so much that we refuse to give the Gardener access to them. When we do that, we allow those weeds to grow to the point that they begin to destroy us.
What is a "weed" in your life?
- Perhaps it's feeding a bad habit
- Perhaps it's hanging out with the wrong group of people
- Perhaps it's gossip
- Perhaps it's anger
- Perhaps it's bitterness or unforgiveness
- Perhaps it's allowing social media to influence your actions
- Perhaps it's jealousy or comparisons
- Perhaps it's an addiction
- Perhaps it's laziness
- Perhaps it's _______________________________
Challenge:
Ask God to reveal the "weeds" in your life, and pray that He helps you remove them permanently. Chances are, if we allow the Gardener to remove those weeds from our lives, we will be healthier, happier people that are living an abundant life of purpose.