Wheat or Weed?

Matthew 13:24-30 says: " 24-26 He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

27"The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?'

28"He answered, 'Some enemy did this.'

"The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?'

29-30"He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"

God has recently been doing a lot of weeding in my life, and boy is He finding creative ways of doing it! Pastor Steven Furtick preached on this in his first sermon in the series called "Where are they now?". He talked about how when God is working in your life, the enemy is always working the night shift. That's why, when you think everything is about to get easier, everything may seem to fall apart. And in essence, some things may. However, we need to trust God that the things that seem to fall apart do so for a reason. You see-in this farmers field, as in any, when the weeds and wheat first start growing, they all look alike. How in the world would you know yourself which to pull up? God is pretty much telling us to let him do it. Give him the job of pulling out the weeds in your life and He will know exactly what to pull and what to leave.

I'll give you a moment to let that all sink in.

In beginning this series, Pastor Steven didn't know he would be throwing bricks at me....and showing me things that I needed to see a long time ago. The second sermon in the series talks about Spiritual Hearing Loss. Can I get an amen????? He pointed out that a lot of times, we hear God well on one frequency or another. In the frequencies that is easy to hear Him. However-when it is that middle frequency, or the one hardest to hear, where He may call us to difficult obedience, a lot of times we willfully tune him out. We only hear Him when it is easy. Man-that was a brick if ever I saw one. Sometimes in our lives, we only hear what is convenient. "God, I will do what you say or go where you say to go. But this area of my life? The one where I stick my head in the sand and pretend that everything is perfect? I don't need you there. I can handle that one all on my own, thankyouverymuch." And when that happens, you start to gradually get away from heariing Him at all. I don't know about you, but I want to hear His voice every day...in every area of my life. Sure-there are times when I don't want to. And there are times when I fight him tooth and nail-because I know what He is telling me to do will be the hard road. Thankfully, God doesn't call us to have the faith to finish-He only calls us to have the faith to start. Let's hear that again- God doesn't call us to have the faith to finish. He only calls us to have the faith to start. I can start anything. I can look at something for what it is anytime. If I only have to take that first step, it really reassures me that I can handle, tackle, overcome, or deal with anything He is asking me to. You see-I have come to learn that this is easier than letting something simmer and fester...and create a mountain out of what was only a mole hill.

Well then-Can you now see why I love this church and pastor? His preachings rock my world. He is authentic. He tells the church where he struggles. He has no desire at all to pretend he is perfect himself. He preaches from his own experiences. And I like it. I love it. I want some more of it. I love having "aha" moments in church on Sundays, and realizing what I have been doing wrong so I can fix it.

For now, I will continue to let him pluck my weeds from my wheat. And boy, am I ever ready for the harvest!!!