THOSE EVERLASTIN' WEEDS

But when the blade was sprung up,

and brought forth fruit, then appeared

the tares also.

Matthew 13:25

Jesus taught so often using wonderful parables. A parable is an illustrative story with a spiritual meaning. He often spoke such parables using things of nature...birds, lilies of the field, wheat and tares, sowing seed, mustard seed and some other things. It has come to my mind this week of His teaching of the wheat and tares. He spoke of how the good plants grow and flourish but unfortunately, so do the tares (weeds) that appear around them.

Any of us who try to even have the fewest of plants or flowering bushes know that no matter how hard we try with chemicals or weed deterrents, they still show up. Such weeds that gather around the flowers or small shrubs almost seem to look at us teasingly and jeering, daring us to do something about them.

I often hear in our area of back aches, sore shoulders and painful knees and can pretty much guess they have been weeding in gardens and plant life in various areas of their yards. Most have told me and I agree that once the weeds appear, there's no riddance of them like them being pulled out of the ground, roots and all. That takes time and plenty of energy with a whole lot of patience.

Farmers may have vast fields of waving grain, but tall weeds may still appear and make themselves known. Farmers don't pull weeds. They harvest the wheat and find it easy to pull the weeds from the good stalks of grain. They don't seem to panic when they see a weed.

Weeds are plants, but they are unwanted ones. We here in East Tennessee are beginning to see some little indicators that spring is upon us. People flock here in April and May just to view wild flowers. May I tell you that many of those lovely “wild flowers” are for the most part weeds...more sophisticated ones with names...but weeds. So the fact is, there are weeds that may be pretty that one might want to hang onto.

People think of spring also as being housecleaning time. Housecleaning in certain areas that have been put on a shelf for “later” may be taken care of in the Spring. Pulling weeds isn't necessarily a year round thing. I have weeds that seem to disappear during the cold months but bless me in abundance when spring comes.

Spiritually, I'm wondering about our personal weeds. Colossians 3 is an excellent chapter for spiritual checkups any time of year. In that chapter we are told some things we need to “put off”...mortify them which means to kill them out. For instance, verses 8 and 9 are examples of what the weeding out process might be for us:

But now, ye also put off all these:

anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,

filthy communication out of your mouth.

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye

have put off the old man with his deeds.

There are other listed in that chapter that need “weeding out.” As faithful as we are to confess our sin, it's amazing how it can raise its ugly head again and again. Just like in our yards, the weeding process is ongoing and will be until we get to Heaven.  

Our problem is, if we don't do any weeding of our sin, those sins just multiply and soon we are so inundated with (weeds) sin that we lose all effectiveness for God. God is the answer to our (weed) sin problem. We read:

If we confess our sins (weeds), he is

faithful and just to forgive us our

sins (weeds), and to cleans us from

all unrighteousness (weeds).

I John 1:9

He is so precious to forgive us, clean us up and use us to the utmost in His grant plan as we live, love and move in this gigantic plot (earth) of His. Where I may have to do spring housecleaning by myself if it is to get done, with the spiritual weeding I know needs done, He is the one who actually comes to my aid...I confess and repent and He does the rest.  Beware though, as I said before, there are some weeds that are pretty.  We may have some sin in our lives we favor whether we want to admit it or not.  Those have to go too.

Father, thank You for the seasons You have put in place for us and for the blessing of each one. Thank You that even the weeds around my bushes, remind me that my life can more beautiful for You without the weeds in my life. Thank You for Your cleansing and forgiveness. Thank You for Jesus who made it all possible...in His precious name....Amen