There are two things that will always be with us wherever we go and wherever we live — sins and weeds. However, if they are uprooted when they are small, it will be so much easier for us.
Once I noticed a small patch of pretty, blue flowers growing in the grass at the back of our yard. Each time I mowed the grass, I noticed the patch of plants was spreading, but I remembered the pretty, blue flowers and left them alone. As summer passed, I didn’t even bother to think about how far these plants were spreading.
One day the following spring, I suddenly noticed that these plants were really a weed that was about to take over our whole backyard! I bent down to look closely at one of the plants and saw that about six strong runners came from each parent plant. Then as those runners rooted and grew into plants, they each put out six more runners. And so six little plants soon became thirty-six, and thirty-six plants soon became . . . how many?
Now began the long, dreary job of uprooting all those weeds. I spent many tiring days working at pulling up patches of this spreading weed. At last I finished and had three wheelbarrow loads to get rid of. I asked myself, What should I do with all these weeds to get them out of sight forever?
Here’s what I did with them. I dug three, large, deep holes in the backyard and dumped the weeds into the holes. I tamped them down and covered them with a thick layer of soil, burying them, and then placed sod on top. Then, where I had dug out all the weeds, the grass was fertilized to give it a fresh start and to help the bare spots recover.
While I worked at this task, I thought of how all those weeds that I was digging out were like the sins on our hearts. We all know how telling one lie sometimes causes us to tell more lies to cover up the first one. And before we know it, we have become deceitful and our hearts are black with sin! The Bible tells us that hearts full of sin can never come into God’s presence. Sin is hateful to Him: “Thou [God] art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and [can] not look on iniquity [sin]” (Habakkuk 1:1313Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1:13)).
What are we to do then? How can we ever get rid of all that sin on our hearts?
Do you know what the word “gospel” means? It means “good news”! And good news is exactly what we have to tell you. God loves us. He saw us in our sins and the need to get rid of all those sins. He gave His only Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for us on the cross. While He was on that dreadful cross, Jesus bore the punishment for all the sins of every person who would believe on Him and accept Him as his or her Saviour. “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
Can you guess what God does with all of our awful sins when we accept the Lord Jesus as our Saviour? The Bible tells us: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:1212As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)). He removes them, and they are gone forever! He also promises something else about those sins — take a peek at our new memory verse. And even that isn’t all; He takes us into His family! “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)). What a wonderful new beginning He gives us!
After that we must make sure that sin never gets a hold again. You know, I never want to have another of those weeds growing in my backyard again. So when I see one, I’ll pull it up right away. And the minute we know we have sinned again, we shouldn’t just ignore it. We need to tell the Lord Jesus about that sin and not allow it again! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)).
ML-02/29/2004