The Holy Spirit is the best gardener. He always leads us to the truth in God's Holy Word. He knows the difference between a weed and a flower.
My son expressed his contempt at the idea of exposing a mess of ants living deep down at the root of the dandelion. "Just cut it off." He said.
I believe that most of us probably relate to my son not wanting a mess, especially an army of angry ants. However; if the root is not exposed and uprooted, the weed is only gone for a short time and soon will rear it's ugly head again.
The Great Gardener, the Holy Spirit, longs to dig up, by the root and expose the weeds in our lives. This process is the perfecting of the saints.
What are the weeds in our lives? The weeds are different for each of us. The book of Ephesians refers to a number of them, but the main one I want to refer to in this writing is lies. It is such an ugly weed and we all struggle with it in some manner. As we allow the Holy Spirit to start digging and tugging, a whole army of lies will most certainly rise up, just like the ants. Lies about our past, about our future, about who we are, all kinds of lies that we've believed about ourselves.
I have believed this particular lie from childhood, I think; that if I disagreed with someone, especially a man, they wouldn't like me and if anyone didn't like me, I wasn't worth anything. I had no value. That is a lie. Even typing it and saying it out loud sounds ridiculous, but I was taught through experience, to believe that lie. I have spent years trying to please people and doing things that God hated because I didn't want to deal with the mess at the roots. I didn't want to dig it up. I just kept cutting it off, by trying to fix my behavior.
Many of us do this by attempting to go on another diet, stop gossiping, quit smoking, no more drinking on and on.... we just cut it off. It's too messy. Keep it hidden. Put on a smile and no one will know. Those are all lies designed to keep us in shame and defeat.
Romans 8:1 says There is therefore; NOW, no condemnation to those who are in in Christ Jesus.
God can deliver you from sin. That is the easy part. Jesus paid for all that on the cross.
The problem is that we have to let Him dig it out by the root. Face that army of lies. You see, when we bring those secret lies to the surface, we are bringing them to the light. Not just any light, Thee light. The Great Gardener.
Psalm 51:6 tells us that when we desire truth in the inward parts, He will make us to know wisdom in the hidden parts. The root of the matter.
The light is truth. Jesus is the light of the world. John 8:12. The Light brings healing and deliverance.
If you keep it in darkness, hidden it will stay there. God wants you to bring it to Him, The Light. He can restore you far better than you could ask or imagine. Tomorrow, Dandelion Part 3, Upside Down.
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