As spring approaches, I get the itch to get my hands dirty and grow something. Last week, I started thinking about my garden. "Dreading" is a more appropriate term. The winter was not kind to my little garden space and it was over-run with weeds and dead leaves.
One day, I decided it was time to clean it up and prepare the soil for the yummy veggies to come in a few weeks. The job seemed over-whelming at first; already new green weeds were taking over the old dead ones.
I slowly began to pull up weeds by the root; some more difficult than others. There are always those pesky ones that refuse to come up that required me digging up the soil around them before they give up their last attempt at holding on.
As soon as I thought I was close to done, I'd step back and see more than I thought I could handle. But I knew that in order to produce good veggies my ground had to be cleared of all weeds, clumps broken up, leaves removed.
Finally, I stepped back to survey my work to see beautiful, rich, dark soil prepped and ready for planting! Ready for good seed to take root because all the extra "stuff" was gone.
How God must feel when He looks at my life! It must be full of things that don't produce good fruits; full of things that had potential for growth, but that I never tended to. If only I would let Him weed out the things that don't belong, He could prepare my life for the great things He has for me!
What are you holding onto that God wants you to let go of? Your church you've been at for more than 8 years? Friendships you've had since you first got married? Hobbies that are poor uses of your time?
Matthew 13:3-9
"And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had not root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, come a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears let him hear."