Beat down. Hoed under. Life digging at you, getting under your skin. Pulled in too many directions. Always needing to measure up.
Have you ever felt that way?
Lately I’ve been pondering Matthew 13, the parable of the sower. Oh, that my own heart would be the good soil that He spoke of, and that my life would produce that same abundant fruit!
Somehow, though, my life seems messy. Things can get downright dirty. I sometimes fall. Struggling, I get up, brush myself off, and try again. And again. And yet again.
Then I am reminded that my own righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); that I can’t do this on my own.
To get good soil, the Gardener will pull weeds and chop down thorny areas, but He must also add compost and manure and allow worms and bees. To the casual observer, these things may seem like mere hindrances, like things that could be easily sidestepped, but the Gardener knows their necessity. It’s part of His process of transforming, molding, shaping.
It’s uncomfortable for me. Dying to self is not easy. Lord, not my will, but yours.
And then I remember verse 22, the verse that often convicts me and pierces my heart: “He that also received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.”
Can you live a holy, transformed, fruitful life among those thorns, among fleshly desires for more worldly goods, for increased wealth, for “just a little more”?
(to be continued...)
Warmly,
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*also shared at the Homestead Barn Hop and Monday Mania
