REMOVING THE WEEDS

“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

-Matthew 5:29-30

Wow, this seems harsh doesn’t it? If your eye causes you to stumble or to sin, you are to pluck it out? You can’t be serious! In years past, that was the way I responded to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:29 & 30. It is kind of funny when you think of it, we struggle with removing that from our life which causes us to sin, but we have no problem removing the weeds that threaten to take over our flower bed. Our sin is a weed that threatens to take over our life and choke all that is good and beautiful causing them to wither and die.

So, we weed. But how do we weed? This may sound like a silly question, but let’s think about this a little. When we weed, do we trim off the top or do we dig out the root and remove the source? Well if we don’t want that weed to keep coming back, we remove the weed at the root, we remove the source and that weed can no longer live. However, if we were to trim the top of the weed off leaving the root, not only will the weed grow back but it still has the potential to spread and take over the flower bed steeling nutrients from the beautiful flowers.

We all have weeds in our life that threaten to take over. As you may know, I have a really difficult time with television. Most people can watch a show or two on television and turn it off when the time comes. Well, not me. For me, television is a weed that I have tried time and time again to trim without removing it completely. However, it doesn’t take long for that television weed to take over my life and I find myself choosing television over my relationship with my spouse, my relationship with my children, and most importantly my relationship with God. I now know that television must be removed from my life completely, since any amount of television keeps me from being the person God wants me to be, the person He has called me to be.

So often we try to work around the things in our life that cause us to stumble and sin, without removing them completely from our life. Like our eye or our hand, there is something we don’t really want to give up or remove completely because we rather like having it. While this may seem to work for a time, there is always a point when we stumble...often when we are weak and weary. But if we totally remove the things from our life that tempt us to sin, if we remove the root, it is much easier to keep from stumbling and sinning when we are weak and weary. If we fail to remove the cause of our sin at the root, not only will we continue to sin, but, like the weed in the flower bed, that sin has the potential to spread and take over; thus moving us further and further away from Jesus, further away from God. He is our light, without Him we will surely die. I need the light that He provides in my life, so I want to be moving closer to God, not further from Him...how about you?





COACH'S CALL TO ACTION

• What is the weed in your flower bed of life?


• Where is the source or the root of this weed?


• What would removing this weed at the root look like for you?


• When will you do your weeding?

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