There is a
particular spot in my back yard, about a 10 x 15 foot area that my wife and I
would like to someday turn into a little patio area. Right now it’s an overgrown mess. Tall, hardy weeds; tough, little weedy shrubs; various grasses and all sorts of other annoying vegetation call
the place home. Trying to keep this area under control is a lot of work. No matter how many times I cut it all down it
keeps coming back, often times bigger and hardier than before. And if I fail to stay on top of it for too
long it becomes a solid weekends worth of work.
One of the
keys to getting rid of certain things like tall weeds, shrubs and other things
is to get at the roots. If all you do is
cut down what’s above the surface, leaving the roots alone, then the thing is
bound to grow back.
My battle
with this piece of landscaping is similar to the enemy’s battle with us. His ultimate goal is to destroy our
relationship with God. To do that he
keeps hacking away at our blessings.
Does it ever seem like whenever something good happens to you that you
hardly have time to enjoy it before something happens to it, or something
stressful pops up in direct relation to it?
Those are the garden shears of the enemy. And, just like I have to be with my
landscaping, he has to be on top of them all the time, lest they grow and bear
more fruit than he can handle. It may
not be what anybody wants to hear – but he’s not going to let up. But the good news? He can’t ever get at your roots, if your
roots are Jesus Christ. Which means
those blessings will keep coming back to annoy the enemy. As long as you don’t let him discourage you
into letting go of those roots, then he can never achieve his ultimate goal of killing
your relationship with the Father.
UNLIKE my landscaping problem, our blessings are
not weeds they are flowers. Nor is the enemy the gardener. He’s just a thief in the garden who has no
legal right to be there. The gardener is you.
Expected me to say God, didn’t you.
It is true that there would be no flowers in the garden, or even a
garden at all, if not for the grace of God.
But God gave us the responsibility of tending the garden. We can plant the seeds of our blessings by
ardently following after Him. (…I will not let you go unless you bless me –
Gen 32:26). We can water and
fertilize our blessings, and make them to be hardy plants resistant to the
enemy’s shears, with prayer. Prayer can
insulate and protect our blessings the way piles of leaves insulate flowers
against the frost. Prayer keeps the
weeds that would choke our flowers at bay the way fertilizer with weed control
works in the natural. Why? Because prayer is the active nurturing of our
relationship with Jesus Christ, who provides the right amount of rain and sun
for the garden we are tending. It
strengthens the roots. And the flowers
are really just the visible manifestation of the strength of our roots. If we protect our roots then we will always
have flowers in our garden. (Here on Earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I (JESUS) have overcome the world.
– John 16:33 [Parenthetical emphasis added]).
