Good Seed
Sometimes in the Spring, when our neighborhood association is late mowing the empty lot next to our house, the grass gets covered in small yellow flowers. I happen to love seeing them and am happy with the tardiness in upkeep. I know they are Dandelions, and I also know that most people only see them as obnoxious weeds. I’m not most people. These little wildflowers have beauty. They are also, surprisingly, both edible and potentially useful in medicinal ways. (Google Dandelions and see what you can learn about them.)
As a child, I loved blowing the seed puffs and watching them float away. Still do, when given the opportunity. I didn’t know then that they were weeds. I didn’t know then that they were “bad” for the grass. In the Bible, there is an injurious weed called “tare.” It looks like wheat when it is young and can be difficult to distinguish from wheat. Jesus spoke of this in His parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30.
In this parable an enemy, in the dark of night, sows tare seeds among a good farmer’s wheat seeds, and when the good farmer’s servants ask if they should pull out the tares, he tells them that they won’t know the difference and some of the wheat could be pulled out instead. The good farmer then tells them it is best to let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, when the difference will be obvious.
We, as children of God and ambassadors of His good character, should be sowing good seed, ever mindful that the Enemy is also sowing bad seed. We do not have to fear this bad seed, because in God’s time the difference will be made known, and His Holy light will burn up the bad and embrace the good.
We may currently have weeds in our hearts, growing right along with the good imperishable seed, but in time, as we pursue Him and His goodness, He purifies our hearts and makes us fit for His Kingdom. We do not have to fear that the weeds will supplant the fruit of the Spirit. We do, however, have to be aware that the weeds will need to be burned. We should embrace the light of the Word, which can tell the difference between fleshly “weeds” and Spiritual fruit, and obey God as He sanctifies us.
Sometimes He commands us to rip out a bad habit or tear down ideas in our minds that don’t line up with His character and nature. Sometimes He comes in a powerful way to clean out things that are destructive. In either case, when we believe Him, He enables us to guard against the wiles of the Enemy.
Dear one, do you have weeds that you are battling? Remember that you have divine weapons. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV)