Weeding Time

 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

A crop of weeds - we all have a few weeds, don't we? What we don't want is for those weeds to overgrow what God is planting within us. A crop suggests there has been a gross over-growth of those ugly things in our lives. Planting is important - what gets sown is what gets reaped. Planting in response to what God asks in our lives is of the greatest importance - for this is what produces the harvest we really desire.

As we think about ways we allow 'weeds' to be planted in our lives, it really all begins and ends with this idea of selfishness. Ignoring the needs of others - focusing primarily on self and what it is that will please 'us' is at the core of what God calls 'weed production'. I know how hard this might be to admit, but when we get our eyes on ourselves more than on others, God isn't willing to allow us to remain that 'inwardly focused' for very long. Why? When we only see 'us' to the extent we shut others out, we aren't allowing the growth he desires. This is the growth that will actually show a hurting and messed up world that he wants to plant good seed into their lives, as well.

If selfishness is at the core of all these 'weeds' in our lives, we need to allow a little 'weeding' to occur until this crop of weeds is finally overgrown by the gracious goodness of God. I have learned you can pull weeds in the yard, but you have to do it repeatedly. You never fully get rid of 100% of those little buggers. Those weeds have a way of reappearing in places I didn't even focus on before. This is why it is so important to allow someone more aware of where they exist to be in control of the weeding process. You and I don't always know we are focusing on self, but allow God's Spirit access to your life long enough and you might just be surprised to see how many 'weeds' he manages to uproot! Just sayin!