I have never been a great one for gardening and things horticulture, but since moving to our present location I have had to care for a brand new lawn growing at our place. It has been quite an interesting lesson to observe how weeds can very easily outgrow the new grass, to the point that often it is choked out. Many weeds spread themselves out close to the ground and therefore choke everything else that is in its vicinity. On seeking to eliminate the weeds manually, I have been amazed at the length of their roots. It seems that weeds like to put their roots down deep, and as a result they survive where other things do not. Hence the old saying, “You cannot kill weeds.”

There is a real lesson for us Christians in this. If we do not take the time and effort to get our roots down deeply in the Word of God, other things in life (weeds), will soon come along and choke out the spiritual life in us. Jesus Christ taught and warned us of this. In the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-12 and Luke 8:4-15) we are shown that the impact of the seed of the Word of God that is sown in our heart is only as good as the depth of our root system. There are four types of earth or soils mentioned here. Three of the four “killed” the Word because it did not go down deeply enough to resist the prevailing circumstances around it. The “wayside, rocky and thorny” ground all speaks of the difficulty of survival because the ground was not conducive to putting down deep roots. It is interesting that the seed in the thorny ground actually started to produce some fruit, but it could not contend with the thorns whose effects were to choke the good seed of the Word. The thorns are weeds and Jesus said they represent the “cares, riches and pleasures of life” ~ all represent a shallow kind of life-style, for Christianity is not about those things. It is about producing the fruit of the seed of the Word of God that has been sown in our hearts ~ and God expects a fruitful crop of at least 30, 60 and 100 fold! The fact is we will never produce that kind of harvest unless our roots first go down deep into the earth. It is what is not seen under the earth that reveals the results that are seen above the earth! The Biblical principle that “we reap what we sow” still very much applies today.

So, where is it at for us? Are we struggling in our Christian walk because we only have a shallow root system? If we are, then in time we will be “snuffed out” by weeds that spring up all around us. Make no mistake; they will eventually snuff us out, and we will produce no eternal fruit for the glory of God. But if we have taken the time to put our roots down deeply into good soil, then we will overcome every thorn, weed and temptation ~ we will not allow them to choke the spiritual life out of us ~ and we will go on to produce a glorious harvest in the Kingdom of God. Yes, God even speaks to us through weeds! ~ Rodney W. Francis.

Bible  Readings:  Galatians 5 and 6.