Tending Our Garden

Articles

Alan Sadler
02/01/21 - Monthly Article

By no means am I a gardener. In fact, I am known as a person with a “black thumb.” However, as I look around my garden, I notice some things that did not take any effort on my part to grow - weeds.

Weeds are sneaky. They came into my garden in a stealthy way. By the time I noticed them, it was too late. Needless to say, I did not get to enjoy an abundance of produce from the garden that I had hoped.

Unfortunately, “weeds” can enter our lives as well if we are not vigilant. Satan is very crafty, stealthy, and tricky in many ways. For example, consider the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Verse 1 describes Satan as “more crafty than any other beast.” He starts off by asking Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” This was not true. God actually said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eatof it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).

And thus Satan sowed weeds in the garden. He tries to do this to us too. He sows seeds of doubt. He presents us with small lies wrapped in the disguise of good seed, but that will eventually grow into the choking weeds that he desires to be in our lives. Like Satan did with Adam and Eve, he will twist God’s word around. In Genesis 3, Satan presented God to be only looking out for Himself. When, in fact, God was protecting them from knowing evil, for all they knew was good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31).

Consider some of the “weeds” that Satan may enter into our lives.

“Is it really gossip? You’re just confiding in a friend who also cares about her. I’m sure she would want them to know.”
“You’re going to marry him, right? You’ll eventually have a physical relationship. So, doing ‘it’ a little early won’t hurt. It may even bring you closer together.”
“It’s just a little drink. You’ve had a long, hard day; you deserve it.”
“God wants you to be happy, doesn’t He? So, just do what makes you happy.”
“Go ahead and view that pornography on your device. Who is it hurting anyway?”

“You’re just meeting up with her. You can be a positive influence. As long as you don’t cross ‘that’ line, it’s okay to talk and not tell your wife. You’re not really breaking your wedding vows by doing that, are you?”

“God is love. He would not reject any union of two people who love each other. What does gender really matter?”
“You are telling the truth. All the facts aren’t necessary. They probably understand the context. Your viewpoint is right anyway.”
“It’s the other person’s fault. You don’t have to reach out and work on the relationship, they do.”

So, the list above isn’t an overt temptation to you? Well, remember, Satan is crafty.

Satan knows not to always put in front of us those things that are grossly wrong. He knows we may catch on to that. So, he uses small, subtle things and masks them so they don’t look out of place. But, actually, he blends them in our lives to try and bring us down and in subjection to him.

So, what is our course of action to eradicate these choking weeds in our lives? Well, we cannot do what I did while trying to grow a garden – that was nothing. If I had only spent some time in my garden pulling out the weeds, I could have enjoyed an abundance of harvest. The same is true in our life. Spending time in God’s word daily, reflecting on it, and being determined to make changes goes a long way in getting rid of life’s weeds. Or, at least we can keep the weeds in our life manageable. After all, it is a lot easier to get rid of weeds when they are small and few.

What if we feel our weeds are too big - maybe even tree-like? What now? Then take drastic, decisive action. Take a hatchet or saw to it! Isn’t that the point in Matthew 5:27-30 and Matthew 18:7-9? While the language is figurative in these passages, the application is serious. We need to take whatever action needed to get rid of the weeds in our lives.

Finally, James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we submit to God and pull out the weeds in our lives, the devil will run. He knows that with God on our side, he has no power over us. The devil has no choice but to run. Take comfort in that!