Heart Soul Mind Strength

the enemy will also sow – don’t be discouraged

Now that Jesus has already completed the work of redeeming us from the curse of the fall through His death and resurrection, we now live in an era of freedom to live the way God designed us to live. What are some of God’s instructions to us? Love. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Live abundantly. Work in order to have something with which to bless others. Be courageous. Be fearless. Work as unto the Lord, not for human rewards. Endure hardship with hope. Learn to yield to Jesus in attitudes and character, laying down our lives, which is the narrow doorway that opens up to LIFE.

We are God’s masterpiece. If we chose to be a lover of God and a believer in His ability to keep us as He promised, HE will make us fruitful in the end.  He promises hardship, trouble, and calls us to carry our cross each day. The cross we carry is our place of willing sacrifice – giving up what we want, the way we want it to show love to others. Read this passage of Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 13:

“24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?’

He said to them, ‘ An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’

But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “ First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Looking at this from the perspective of the wheat (us), even if we feel like life in our community is overgrown with weeds, it does not change the truth of the seed growing in our lives. The fruit of our little garden spot will testify of us, not of the rest of the field. The Lord has prepared the soil and He planted the good seed in us before the enemy planted weeds nearby.  By God’s wisdom, the good seed has a head start on the weed growth. As it springs up around us, we need to focus on absorbing the sunlight from above, hosting the living elements that produce food for the crop growing in us, and supporting the good seed’s crop as it follows the script written in its DNA. The field belongs to the Lord of the Harvest, not to us.

We can’t kill the tares around us, but we can know the secrets of drawing nutrition from death and decomposition.  God doesn’t want us to worry about the tares. Philippians 4:6 instructs us not to be anxious about anything. Not even weeds! Anything that human thinking would do to get rid of the weeds would also hurt the fruitfulness of the harvest.

If God doesn’t get rid of all the weeds growing around you in your life, do not think that it means He doesn’t care about you. He knows what is best. He cares about you so much that He doesn’t want you to lose any fruitfulness for the day when He gathers in the harvest.

Separating the good seed crop from the enemy’s planting is a job only for the Lord’s hands alone. Only He is to be trusted to be gentle and wise enough not to harm the work He is doing. We must do the part He gives us to do and trust Him with the rest.