I love gardens. I just can’t stand gardening. I’ve discovered that once you put all the work into creating a garden, you must keep working to keep the weeds away. Weeds love to take over, so it’s a constant battle to keep a garden from getting choked out by weeds. I realized one day as I was muttering away at all this “stupid work” I was having to do to keep our front flower boxes looking groomed and cared for, that no matter how much I worked, the weeds would always be looking for their opportunity to come back.
“God, why did you even make these things? They are such a nuisance!”
He reminded me that like my life is like that garden and I must work every day to keep myself weed-free of negative thoughts, selfishness, anger, unforgiveness, etc. Those emotional and spiritual weeds are forever ready and willing to come in and take over the ground I’ve gained. Staying free takes work, and often in the past one of my biggest mistakes was thinking that once I’d done the work of forgiving or repenting, I shouldn’t have to do it again. Wrong! Just like that garden box, I need to stay on top of old habits and thought patterns that would try and overtake the good that God was doing in my life! I need to keep my ‘field’ cleaned and cleared.
In Mark 4:18-19 Jesus warns of the choking influence of thorns. There are three kinds of pesky, prickly weeds that squeeze the life out of us.
The first weed Jesus warned of is ‘the worries of the world, the anxieties of this age.’ Worry or anxiety means “to be drawn in different directions” or “to be distracted.” We need to be aware of when we’re getting distracted, and it usually happens when we get too busy.
The second weed Jesus spoke of is ‘the deceitfulness of riches’. Maybe you’re thinking constantly about money, about not having enough or chasing more. Maybe you’re in debt yet you can’t stop spending. That’s a deceitfulness of riches that keeps saying you don’t have enough, and you need more! And you don’t trust God to provide for you, so you keep providing for yourself, while your debt mounts up.
The third weed that we find hindering fruitfulness in our lives is ‘the desire for other things’. Here we find the weed of a passionate desire or a craving. Some of these weeds are easily spotted, like sexual lust, an addiction to pornography, or perversions. But other cravings aren’t so easily identifiable: food, clothing, jewellery, car, job, salary, a hobby or sport, or even the location or kind of house we live in.
Any desire that drives us, controls our thinking, or preoccupies our minds can be a weed that hinders growth in our lives.
Here in my area of Canada we have a blackberry bush that was introduced to our area and is known to be hard to control and highly invasive. Once rooted they are very hard to get rid of and are a threat to other plant life and even animals. . They may produce berries BUT the cost of trying to get the fruit from these thorn bushes always entails scratches, cuts, scraps – basically more ‘pain’ than ‘gain’ from these bushes.
Once they’ve rooted, they can take over an entire fields, even topple fences with because of the sheer weight! I’m’ not surprised that Jesus used these kind of thorn bushes to paint us a picture.
We are told the thorns choke out the ‘message’ . The question then is what message has Jesus been trying to say to you? Me? And what can I do to rid myself of these thorns.
How can I be a field that is not habitable for the thorns?
When was the last time you felt at peace about provision?
About your circumstances?
Perhaps it’s time to remember that He’s got you and is taking care of you. And if you can’t do that, it’s probably time to ask Him why you’re struggling with believing that He will take care of you.
Or it might be time to ask the hard question: Have I taken my life back and is it in my own hands again?