Pulling Weeds

My grandparents lived on a small, bountiful farm in southern West Virginia. They grew various crops. There was the potato patch, the pumpkin patch, and, especially important, the pepper patch. Green bell peppers was one of their largest crops. Occasionally, my siblings and I helped weed the pepper patch. Boy, that was a job. Those rows of pepper plants seemed a mile long and took what felt like ages to work from one end to the other. As an adult, my perspective adjusted that measurement significantly, but my recollection of looking down that long, long pepper row remains.

Pulling weeds might be the least inspiring of all gardening tasks. It’s slow, hot work in the dirt. Dull and tiring as it is, to achieve the greatest glory of the final fruit (or vegetable), weeding is necessary. Left in the ground, weeds siphon away precious nutrients and might grow large enough to block sunshine from the plant.

Our spiritual garden follows a similar principle. As believers in Christ, we are called to live a spiritually fruitful life exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (a.k.a. self-control) (Galatians 5:22-23). Part of bringing such a beautiful harvest to our personal experience is pulling weeds: pulling up and removing the things that detract from our spiritual growth.

What are these weeds that hinder our growth? How do we identify them?

We could fill in the answer blank with a variety of actions, attitudes, and thoughts that are not Christ-like.

Before he lists the fruit of the Spirit, the Apostle Paul who wrote Galatians gives a run through in Galatians 5:19-21 of works of the flesh.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV).

Wow. That’s a heavy list. Paul says these works are evident, or obvious. We could say these are the easily identified weeds.

Are there other weeds we could overlook or justify letting grow in our garden?

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith….” NKJV uses the word ensnares instead of beset.

It’s possible we have life-sucking weeds in our garden that aren’t necessarily sinful. Sinful works of the flesh must be pulled up. They cannot be allowed to grow and root in our lives. How do we approach the weights that hinder our growth that aren’t obvious sins? Do we desire the fruit of the Spirit enough to uproot things that could be permissible but are hindering?

Scripture is the lamp for our feet and light for our path (Psalm 119:105). Learning God’s Word and letting its light shine onto our hearts and educate our thinking will help us distinguish between what is God-honoring and beneficial and what isn’t.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable” (Hebrews 4:12-13 NLT, Tyndale).

The more we study and meditate on the Word, the more our discernment develops from the inflow of truth. Knowing truth is integral to identifying weeds in our personal lives.

Once we spot a weed, what do we do with it?

If the Word reveals a weed in our life that needs plucked up, we are wise to do it and not delay. Hebrews 3:12-15 warns us of the deceitfulness of sin. We can deceive ourselves by continuing in sin. Repeatedly brushing off those gut-check warnings and red flags, overriding conviction, causes us to harden to the woo of the Holy Spirit.

Be careful, then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled” (Hebrews 3:12-15 NLT, Tyndale).

Sometimes we miss the seriousness of a weed, not realizing what it is or could grow to become. This summer my petunias from last year sprang up, surprising me with oodles of little sprouts that grew to reveal last year’s colors of blossoms as well as lovely, new color variations from cross-pollinating. While still sprouts, among the baby petunias in one pot stood a much taller weed of some sort. I saw it but didn’t get in any hurry to pull it. One day soon after, my father-in-law passed the flower pot and told me that weed was poison ivy. What! How did that get into my flowers? That knowledge ran weeding up the ladder of importance. I put on gloves to pull out the poison ivy and was surprised to find it had a long, white taproot about the size of my finger. It looked like a root vegetable it was so stout.

I don’t know how the poison ivy got in with the flowers or how long it had been germinating there. I don’t recall finding like weeds in my flowers the previous year. That weed had wasted no time in taking up residence in my flowers. It was evidently enjoying the nutrients in the leftover potting soil as it had tremendously outgrown the petunia sprouts that were growing back from what we planted last year.

Weeds are pernicious. They can be poisonous. They can show up and root and quickly overtake plants that have been planted and tended to longer.

We must not give place to sinful or weighty weeds. As we go forward in pursuit of a spiritually fruitful life, we can actively protect our harvest.

1.      Plant wisely. What gets planted grows. Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Be careful what seeds of thought pass through the garden gate and touch the soil.

2.    Pull the weeds faithfully. Galatians 6:9 encourages us, “And let us not be weary in welldoing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We don’t faint on those long rows of being down on our knees in the dirt under the blazing sun pulling weeds! If we pull up the works of the flesh and weights, the fruit of the Spirit can grow.

3.      Stay Watchful. Romans 13:11-14 heralds us awake and to watchfulness:

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:11-14 NKJV).

Weeds seem to crop up of their own accord when we’re careful not to plant them purposely (like the poison ivy); so, we have to watch. 1 Peter 5:8-9 NKJV calls us to alertness: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith….”

Pulling weeds in our spiritual garden sometimes feels like peeling away our comfort. That’s hard to make ourselves do. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much! He knows what will truly fulfill us. If we’ll trust Him enough to be obedient in removing from our life what detracts from our spiritual growth, we’ll make room for God’s better plan and provision. We’ll have right conditions for our lives to manifest a beautiful harvest of God’s glorious fruit of the Spirit.