I do not have a green thumb. I have a good number of skills I can claim to varying degrees of accomplishment. But anyone who knows me well will tell you that I do not have much success in growing plants and flowers. Even those plants termed “easy to grow” usually succumb to my inability to be a good gardener. This goes for both indoor and outdoor plants. I really want to like gardening, but I don’t. My husband and I buy flowers, I place the pots in the flower bed, he plants them and we’re done. If they grow, I am delighted. If they don’t, oh well. Better luck next year. But the weeds! Oh, they grow just fine.
SPIRITUAL WEEDS GROW DEEP AND STRANGLE
I recently came across a quote that caught my attention. “Don’t water your weeds.” Mr. Harvey Mackay is an author and engaging business speaker. While I’m sure that this quote was intended to motivate and encourage business leaders, I find that it applies to our personal lives as well. We all have weeds growing in our life’s garden; behaviors that choke out the blessings that God has for us. Feelings of doubt, shame, insecurity, or uncertainty can be difficult to overcome, just like pulling stubborn weeds from the soil. Watering them will only cause spiritual weeds to grown deeper and strangle our efforts to be the people God desires for us to be. They pull us away from a healthy relationship with God and others.
NOT THE LIFE INTENDED FOR US
This is not the life that our Creator intended for us. Ask God to pull those weeds out of your heart and mind and replace them with His seeds of love, grace and mercy. Jesus plants these seeds in our hearts when we accept His sacrifice on the cross on our behalf and become one of His children. His seeds are watered as we draw near to God, study His Word and seek Him in prayer. They grow and equip us to fulfill God’s purposes for us. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
CULTIVATE YOUR HEART’S GARDEN
God created us in His image. It is not His desire for the garden of our hearts to be full of weeds growing unchecked. We were fashioned to grow beautiful blossoms that display His beauty and grandeur. Ask God to cultivate your heart’s garden in a way that reflects His glory. You don’t need a green thumb to do that.
“I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ[a]—for this will bring much glory and praise to God” (Philippians 1:9-11).