Today's Devotional

July 13, 2005

Subject:  The Right Nourishment Kills The Weeds

James 1:21 - "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

Ah the Texas Dilemma in July.  Do I try to keep a green lawn and pay an outrageous water bill or do I let the 100 degree temperature go ahead and kill the lawn and everything else and then pray for rain?  Well without answering that dilemma for the Texans, I most recently observed that when it gets really dry, we have these tall weeds that grow up through the grass.  I mean they get really tall and they are quite hideous in amongst your good-looking grass and it seems that these weeds thrive on the dryness.  However, I was here about a week ago when the rain finally came.  It was amazing.  Almost immediately amongst the brown grass that previously overwhelmed the lawn, you could see small shoots of green grass breaking through.  What was also strange was that instantly, the weeds were gone.  The rain not only provided nourishment for the green grass to grow, but it also had the effect of killing the weeds.  

This is the way the word of God works in our lives; not only is it good for our growth but it is also preventative in our lives in that it keeps the "weeds" down or in some cases, completely out.   See the dryness will leave you weak and malnourished, but it's the weeds that come to choke you out.  When we are in the word, it protects, prevents and more than anything, saves us from the weeds in this harsh world.  See "weeds" don't belong right next to those nice blades of grass but they've slowly crept in because nourishment was lacking.  So too in our lives, when nourishment is lacking, standby for the weeds, but here's the cool thing.  THE RIGHT NOURISHMENT KILLS THE WEEDS!  When the rain comes, the weeds will go away. 

There are surely lots of "tools" and "chemicals" and "services" you could use to remove the weeds, but it's so much better when God does it.  If you've got lots of weeds in your life standby for the rain.  It kills the weeds and it's a cleanser with detergent too.  

Carlen