What's Growing In Your Heart?

Have you ever looked at a garden real close before? As you looked at the garden, you may have noticed some flowers and plants that were just starting to bloom or had fully bloomed. Perhaps you saw the beginnings of a plant sprouting out of the soil. But, then as you kept looking closer at the garden, you may have also noticed some plants that looked like they didn't belong. Those were the weeds. Some of the weeds may have even gotten tangled up with the other plants and you couldn't tell the difference of which was a plant and which one wasn't. Stay with me...I'm going somewhere with this! In Matthew 13:3-9, Jesus tells a story of a farmer who went to plant seeds in his garden. Some fell on the path and the birds ate the seeds up immediately. It didn't even have time to make it to the soil! Then some seeds fell among rocks with only a little bit of soil. There was not enough to produce much of anything. What did sprout did not survive because too much sun came and they withered. Then, some seeds fell among thorns and choked out the plants. A note about the thorns: they have sharp spines on them and can hurt if you are stuck by them. Lastly, some of the seeds fell on good soil and those crops grew well. As we look at this story that Jesus told, the seed represents the Word of God and the soil represents our heart. The farmer represents whoever shares the Word with us- family members, pastors, co-workers, coaches, friends. What we do with the Word determines what grows or doesn't grow in our heart. We don't want to miss the right seed from getting in our heart. We don't want distractions to snatch away what we just heard or read in the Word. We don't want to live the Word for a little while, but as soon as the storms or tough times come, we forget about God. The sun can be intense like the storms in our life. We don't want to wither because of the storms. We can remind ourselves of what the Word says and we can stand firm on it. We also don't want the thorns (worries, problems) to become bigger than what the Word says. While the thorns may seem painful, God is bigger than all our problems and situations! What we should strive to be is like the seed that fell on good ground. When we hear the Word, let's do our best to live it and put it into action. We should make a change as a result of what we hear. That is a change for the better! What should be growing in our heart is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). We should ask God to help us constantly work on these. As they are growing in us, they should start to be evident in our lives more and more. Have they fully bloomed yet? No, but I know God is still working on all of us with the fruit. We should acknowledge all the growth and progress we see. A win is a win no matter the size! Remember the weeds we mentioned earlier? Let's make sure we keep the weeds out of our heart- pride, selfishness, complaining, unforgiveness, jealousy. The weeds may get tangled up with other things in our lives, but God will show us what we need to uproot on a daily basis. What appears to look good for us (for example, certain relationships) is not always good for us. As we take time every day to read the Word and we have the "farmers" in our lives who share the Word, let's make sure we have an open heart to receive the Word. Our daily prayer should be Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." We should want all wrong to be cleaned out of our heart so the fruit can grow there. When we have an open heart to receive the Word, it can fall on good ground and we can be strong in the Lord.