Homemaker CEOGrowing Spiritually, Personally, and Professionally

 Weeds in your Heart

 Early this morning before the rain started I went outside and began to dig out the weeds from part of my front yard. Our home was second from worst on this block and it would only be a matter of time before we got a nasty letter from Sergeant Homeowners Association.

 The amount of weeds was outstanding so I raked them off the lawn to see the descent grass that was under all that mess. When I was done, it looked much better. The lawn, however, will never be perfect unless the Master Gardner treats the weeds thoroughly.

 As I was gardening something came to mind. Over the weekend, I asked one very dear to me why he wasn’t “sold” to Jesus or this Christianity thing. He told me he had never really had an experience with the Lord. He believes in Him, that He is real but His motivation to read the Word as a daily part of life or even live out his faith passionately is not apparent in his daily life.

 I followed his comment by, “have you ever prayed for something and got an answer?” “Yeah, sometimes, but I have never heard Him speak”, he said. It broke my heart to think that he has believed Christians literally hear His voice, as he continued to share. The truth is most of us could say that the Lord speaks to us in our heart and spirit. We get a knowing that is just there. The latter may be true for others, however.

 But what could possibly hinder us from hearing the Lord in our spirit, ears, or through His Word? What about that nagging feeling that we are not close to Him, therefore, He does not love us?

 Sometimes it’s the sin in our life, at others it’s the noise we won’t shut off, but for many it’s the unbelief which is also sin. YUP! Many of us don’t make an effort to believe in God and His Son. Why? Because He has not shown Himself to be real to me me, you may say?

 If you look back to the stories of the Bible there were many miraculous things occurring right in front of the people and yet they did not believe. The sea parted, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the possessed were freed from demons. People literally got to see Jesus face to face and perform miracles at the same time and it was still not good enough to believe in Him.

 I don’t think it was the miracles they didn’t believe in, I think it was all the things in their heart that I represent as weeds today. Desire to keep walking in their ways, anger they were not willing to give up, hate they harbored, selfishness, unnecessary businesses, rebellion, stealing, greed, and more.

 Sometimes, it feels like too much effort to pull the weeds by the root so we choose to let them reside right where they as it’s easier than to have to believe or change.

 For those of us who are ready to make that change and/or believe but feel hopeless, don’t. As I told my dear one, “When you are ready, all you have to do is ask”. There is story in the Bible where a man had unbelief and he prayed for the ability to belief (Mark 9:24).

 If it’s a certain sin, then repent from it. Repent, meaning ask for forgiveness and choose to stop participating in that which hinders you. Repenting means you will turn away from the behavior for good with His power, not ours. We can’t do it alone.

 We all have a thorn in our flesh which means no matter how much we love the Lord we will struggle with wanting to stop doing something that hurts us yet it seems hard to overcome. Paul struggled with this (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). But the Lord gives us grace to overcome the guilt, shame, and the thorn allows us to keep coming back at His feet. If the Lord was disgusted with our weakness, He would not have told Paul that His grace is sufficient for Paul to overcome his thorn in the flesh. How interesting that he even calls it a “thorn”.

 To clean the weeds out of your garden, ask the Master Gardner, Jesus, for the help to believe, ask for freedom from your sins, and if you have not asked Jesus into your life and heart, ask Him to by simply saying…

 Lord, come into my heart, cleanse me from my sins, be my Lord and Savior. I believe you were born of a virgin; you died on the cross for my sins, were buried and rose again on the third day to be seated at the right hand of the Father.

If you do this today, let someone know so that you may be kept in prayer.

God Bless,

Teresa G. Lusk