I enjoy planting a garden in the spring. The smell of the tilled soil reminds me of when I was younger, plowing with a tractor. It is something about planting seeds and watching them break through the ground. As the plants grow, you have to keep the weeds out. When the weather is cool, working in the garden is not a bad job. In August when days and nights are very hot and humid, the job gets harder.
A mid summer, weed free garden is a beautiful sight. If you do not work in the garden every day, the weeds will slowly overtake the plants robbing them of moisture and nutrients. When the days are hot and humid, it is harder to keep the weeds under control. When weeds over take your garden, vegetable production will almost come to a stop.
Weeds hinder vegetable production in the garden just like negative thoughts from the devil hinder the growth of a Christian. Many of us, in our Christian lives, have periods of springtime. We diligently watch our thoughts and our lives as Christians. We seem to be doing fine, then the devil robs us of spiritual nourishment by planting weed seeds to over come us.
Christians think of your mind as a garden. The good thoughts are the vegetables, and the negative thoughts are weeds. Every day we have to hoe this garden to keep the weeds out. What are weed thoughts? Thoughts of doubt, lust, pride, discouragement, cares of this world, fear, and unbelief are some big weeds Satan uses to rob us of our Christian strength. Take notice, all of these are thoughts that can be controlled or weeded out of our mind. There are many others, but let's just discuss these.
First, let's talk about what these thoughts can do to our Christian lives. Doubt can hinder our prayers to God. In James 1:6, James talks about asking God with faith and no doubting.The fall of man was caused by doubt. Read Genesis 3:1-6 and notice how Satan caused Eve to doubt what God said. He said "You will not surely die". She doubted the truth, God told her, and sinned against God by following her own desires.
You notice that before Eve was tempted with the lust of the flesh (saw it was good for food), lust of the eyes (saw it was pleasant to the eyes), and pride of life (a tree desirable to make one wise) Satan placed in her mind what God said not to be truth. She then doubted God, which led to her sin. (Gen. 3:1-6)
In just a moment, lust can cause us to take our focus off God and gratify our desires.Yes, lust is a powerful thought in which the devil tempts us. It is like morning glories in a garden, you have to chop them out every day. They are continually sprouting.
Also, the pride of life gives us a feeling of independence and self reliance leading us away from God. We get into trouble when we live our lives like we don't need God.
Discouragement is another weed of thought that can destroy our faith. Satan uses this to make us give up trying to live the Christian life. Read Rev. 12:10. Satan is our accuser. He wants us to feel so bad in our sins, that we give up hope for God's forgiveness. But John says, "If we confess our sins and repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us". (1John 1:7-9) I have seen many young righteous Christians leave their Christianity because of discouragement.
The cares of this world are weeds of thought Satan uses to keep God from being first in our lives. In Matthew 13:22, Christ says, the cares of this world choke out the word. Daily, failing to read God's word will gradually let these weeds grow into thoughts leading us away from God.
Satan uses fear to destroy our trust in God. When we are praying daily about affairs effecting our lives and God does not answer as we expect we become afraid and our trust in God waivers. Along with this, fear, and the weeds of unbelief start to totally confuse us. If we do not remove these thoughts from our thinking, they will destroy our faith.
Satan puts thoughts in our minds, like these, consistently. Just as we daily weed our garden, we have to be persistent weeding our thoughts, or they will get ahead of us and make us unfruitful.
How do we chop these destructive thoughts out of the garden of our mind? Here are a few scriptures that may help.(Jer. 32:17) Jeremiah says there is nothing too hard for God. We need to believe this. (Mark 10:27) Jesus says," all things are possible with God". Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Paul tells us, in Romans 8:39, nothing created can separate us from the love of God. We are to pray without ceasing, 1Thess. 5:17. We are to meditate or study God's word. (2Tim. 2:15) Paul tells us what to think on in Phil. 4:8. We also need the help of one another (1Thess 5:11) and to be with one another. (Hebrews 10:25)
With God's help and the help of other Christians, we can overcome these destructive thoughts Satan introduces to us each day. If we let them, they will grow like weeds in a garden and eventually choke out the good plants, our Christian life. It takes an hourly vigilance.
In today's turmoil and trouble let's help each other have a weed free garden in our minds.
Comments welcomed at rhepler52@gmail.com
Never give up, no matter what the circumstance. God has not and will not leave us. He loves us.
Thanks,
Rick Hepler
