Pulling weeds is never an easy task, but there are some weeds that are harder to uproot than others. For example, if you don’t pull crabgrass when it first comes up, many shoots will take root and start new plants. When you have a garden full of them, it can take some time to untangle and uproot the different shoots before you can pull out the main root. Also, you must pull out the weeds before they go to seed. Otherwise, you have just sown a crop of weed seeds into your garden. It may not look like many seeds, but you’ll see the effect the next spring when they start to sprout. It will take much longer to remove all the new weeds, plus the old weeds that you missed.
In the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, Jesus says the Word of God is sown into our hearts. In other words, He is comparing our hearts to a garden.
“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” - Matthew 13:7-8 NIV
When the disciples were confused about the meaning, Jesus explained it to them. The seed is the good news about the kingdom of God, but not everyone who hears it will produce a harvest.
“The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” - Matthew 13:22 NIV
Another translation says it this way.
The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.” - Matthew 13:22 THE MESSAGE
Have you ever spoken to someone, and come away feeling like you were covered in their problems? It’s likely that the weed seeds overflowing from their heart spilled over onto you. How do weeds in their heart grow into seeds that spill out? By letting the “weeds” of bitterness take root.
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. - Hebrews 12:15 NIV
Take a look at the last part of that verse: corrupting many. The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, reads “and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.” You see, when someone has a bitter heart it can “spill out” to you.
As believers, our task is to pull up any roots of bitterness, and not allow new seeds to sprout. How? By choosing forgiveness instead of offense. When we allow ourselves to be offended, a seed of bitterness can result. Then if that seed takes root and grows, it can produce more seeds that grow until there is no room in the heart for anything but bitterness. But God’s grace will help us choose forgiveness. (Forgiveness doesn’t mean that what someone did to you was right; it means that the person no longer affects you.)
It should be easy for someone to know what is in your heart. Someone once said that your heart is like a sponge—when you’re squeezed, what’s inside will come out.
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” - Luke 6:45 NIV
We must watch what is in our heart, and not allow weeds (worries, greed, bitterness, unforgiveness, and more) to grow. In this way, we can produce good things for the Kingdom of God.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. - Proverbs 4:23 NIV
By Gloria Miller