Weeds!

We’ve recently moved from a home in the city to a house in the suburbs. In the city I had a small but paradise-like back yard. My husband had built a high fence and the garden areas were small but pretty and manageable. A lot of the beauty was in hanging plants (no weeding required). The new house has a much bigger yard, though it’s still small by most suburban standards (everything is relative). In the city I could manage the whole outside of the house in about ½ hour a week – including mowing the lawn!

God has given me the privilege this summer of getting away. I went to the beach for three days with my sister one week, to the “She Speaks” conference the next week, and last week I got to go with a good friend to visit a good friend in Virginia (what a gift!). So, I hadn’t been in those flowerbeds for three weeks. I waited another week to approach them because the appearance was that this was going to be a daunting task. The weeds had completely taken over. They were about a foot high and looked really thick. I was dreading it.

Well, one night I went out for some other reason and thought I should just cut back the weeds that were draped over the sidewalk. Once I got started I could see that they weren’t all that thick. Each one was so tall that it was laying over. The appearance was much worse than reality. As I got down on my knees closer to the roots I could see each plant and they pulled right out. I moved from the big picture looking down on them to the specifics of the problem as I got down on level with them.

It occurred to me that God is so gracious to us as He looks down on us. He sees the whole package, all of our sin. But when He saves us, when we place our faith in Him, He begins to show us our sin. He never gives it to us all at once. Slowly but surely, over time, He reveals one root of sin after another so that we can eliminate it, pull it up and throw it away. If He were to show it to us all at once we would be overwhelmed and most likely give up.

God points out our sin for one reason, to make us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). He says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). He doesn’t show it to us to shame us or to punish us. He shows it to us so we can confess it, pull it out like a weed, and then He can forgive it. He says in 1 John 1 9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The character of God is such that in His love for us He wants to show us mercy. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses them will obtain mercy.”

When God reveals our sin to us we need to turn from it for our own good. In fact, we should be thanking God for exposing the sin. Conviction is an act of His mercy. So, when you or I feel convicted about the words that have come out of our mouths, or that gossip that we didn’t stop, that lustful thought or willful disobedience, let’s thank God for His mercy as we confess and live in the peace that comes from a clean conscience – just like the peace I feel when I look at my “clean” garden!