Weeds are like posion. They grow and seek to destroy by choking the life and the beauty out of a garden. Any avid gardener would be able to speak of the importance of getting rid of weeds. A gardener who is not diligent in removing weeds will place their garden on "life support" so to speak.
Christian, we have a garden. That garden is the garden of our hearts. Be not deceived. We MUST be diligent gardeners when it comes to our hearts. God says in Proverbs 4:23 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." While God cares about all aspects of who we are, the best indicator of our spiritual health is our hearts. God looks carefully and cares about our hearts. Our hearts are only human on this side of heaven, but He desires and deserves the best of hearts that we can offer to Him. With that said, we must not be sloppy gardeners. We must daily ask God to help us examine our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24). Anything that He then shows us that is not in accordance to the truth of His Word and His character, is a weed of sin that we must not let grow any longer. When God shows us a sin weed, we must do what any good gardener does with weeds--remove, remove, remove. How do we remove the weeds of sin? We go to the Master Gardener, God, who is faithful to complete the good work that He has started in the lives of His children (Phil. 1:6). We must confess the sin weeds openly to God and declare with His help the desire to turn from that sin in repentance. Then God who is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) goes to work to remove our sin weeds, making our garden weed free and ripe for growth.
Over the past two years I have worked hard with the Lord to keep my heart growing. I almost daily take time to be quiet before the Lord in prayer and the reading of His Word. I believe these two things keep the soil of my heart fertile and soft for growing. I have taken great pains to guard what I watch, what I listen to, who I am around, and where I am going. This is like spreading a little Miracle Grow. I ask the Lord to daily help me review the events of the day and examine my heart so that in confession and repentance, I can allow Him and His power to be the killer of my weeds of sin.
This month many battles and attacks from Satan, in spiritual warfare brought about some weeds of sin in my heart that were displayed in my inner thoughts and attitudes. Only the Lord and I could see them and knew of their presence. Sin weeds under the names of selfishness, pride, jealousy, anger, lack of faith/trust, unpure motives were raging a war on my heart due to my self-will in circumstances that I was hit with in the spiritual battle one after another. Many of these attacks came because Satan knew the work of the Lord that I was seeking to accomplish for the good of His kingdom. Satan wanted to distract me from doing the work and knock my focus in my ministry. The problem and the panic of my heart was that these weeds of sin in my thoughts and attitudes just would not die, even though I sought the Lord in confession and repentance. Yes they would go for a short period of time. However, they would not stay dead.
I did the only thing that I knew to do. Every time they arose, I went to battle in prayer to my wonderful God. Many times I fell numb to the floor over the condition of my heart before Him. I opened up everything I was feeling and how I was sinning, begging for relief and a permanent change of heart. The battle was exhausting at times. Not to mention that I physically got ill as well in the middle of the battle front. I also called a rally of Christians to offer my name before the throne of God. There is strength in numbers. A select few knew all the details of the war, while most only knew that I was in war and needed the armor of God and strength of the Lord around me. It did not matter, God knew the details and desires to set these hinderances aside. They only needed to mention my name.
Thank God for victory and relief for the present time. My heart is in a proper place in regard to the circumstances. My sin was still that-- sin. No excuses. I am responsible. However, due to my diligence and desire to protect my heart, the prayers of others, and a wonderful God, outward actions that could've come from those inner sinful attitudes were killed before they could bring harm and spread to others.
No comments:
Post a Comment