Wheat and Weeds

24 Then Jesus used another story to teach them. Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like a man who planted good seed in his field.

Any farmer in his right mind would only plant good seeds.  We are planting seeds in our life moment by moment.  We plant mental, emotional, and physical seeds that affect our life every day.  

There are seeds of anger, wrath, jealousy, envy, hatred, bitterness, immorality and all of the other behaviors of the sinful nature.  

  

25 That night, while everyone was asleep, the man’s enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and then left.

How vulnerable we are during those times when we are unaware of what is going on around us.  There were times with Judy, being in the hospital that she was totally unaware of what was happening to her because of unconsciousness.  It is only by faith that we are trusting in the hospital staff, that they did whatever was in her best interest.

One of the things I did was to get online and inform myself of her condition and what needed to be done and how to do it.

In the spiritual realm, there are many people who are walking by faith trusting in their spiritual leaders that they are being led correctly.  The only way that can happen is to be spiritually aware -- familiar with God’s Word, to be able to discern what God is revealing to us.

One of the indicators of spiritual misleading is being left alone.  Notice that after the enemy came and planted the weeds, then the  enemy left.  No reason to stick around.  The damage was done and left to bring about the harmful results.

For Judy, nurses came and went.  In the beginning she received round the clock attention.  Not so much the longer she was there.  Her needs are different.  At times she would get frustrated because she didn’t receive the constant attention that she did at first.  She learned new ways of living.  At some point she was released and was almost completely reliant upon caring for herself.  We were thankful that that day came.  However, there are some people who have been injured so badly that they will be cared for for the rest of their life.

I remember that right after I received Christ, the Lord was personally active in my life.  I took so much for granted.  Growth in Christ was fun and games.  Like childhood, growth was filled with spiritual excitement.  I had no idea as a young child in Christ that difficult times of growth lay ahead of me.  I was saved in 1972 and my how things have changed.  My relationship with Christ is the same, but my walk grows more and more by faith.  

I was the pastor of a local church for a few years and the comment I heard time and again from the people was that the previous pastor deserted them.  Interesting thing was that many of those people deserted us.

There are many people who have never been taught to care for themselves spiritually.  They have become totally dependent upon the pastor or teachers to provide spiritually for them.  How sad, but they are spiritual invalids.

It has always been my desire to help people to learn to “feed themselves.”  That’s the only way to grow strong in Christ.

The most difficult thing in the Christian life is to come to the realization that growth in Christ never ends.  Try to convince a 5 year old that they don’t know everything.  Try to convince a teenager that they don’t know everything.  Try to convince each one of us that there are still things to learn.

I have learned so much through Judy’s illness, but the one thing I have learned is that I don’t have a clue about many things in life.  Watching the doctors and nurses in their craft was so humbling.  I thank God for them and what they are able to do.  Watching a nurse (male & female) clean up Judy’s bodily functions was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.  I had no idea the sacrifice and labor involved!

26 Later, the wheat grew, and heads of grain grew on the plants. But at the same time the weeds also grew.

Like so many things in life, there is the good and bad growing together.  Where there is love there is hate.  Where there is sacrifice there is selfishness.  Where is joy there is sadness.

Where there is growth in Christ, Satan does all he can to hinder that growth.  He does so by getting us to question the goodness of God.  Remember in the garden God provided all they needed to survive and Satan got Eve to doubt.  God warned them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die.  Satan came and got Eve to question God’s goodness in the fact that God withheld something good from them.

27 Then the man’s servants came to him and said, ‘You planted good seed in your field. Where did the weeds come from?’

28 “The man answered, ‘An enemy planted weeds.’

“The servants asked, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?’

29 “He answered, ‘No, because when you pull up the weeds, you might also pull up the wheat.

There were many time in the life of our daughter that I saw certain behavior that I selfishly tried to eliminate.  It only created greater hostility between us.  Although it is painful, I realized the only way she would learn was to let her experience the consequences of her own decisions.

30 Let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest time. At the harvest time I will tell the workers this: First, gather the weeds and tie them together to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn.’”

One day in the life of each individual, there will come a “harvest time.”

We can’t do whatever we want with our bodies without one day  experiencing the consequences.

Doctor’s offices, hospitals, and lawyer’s offices are filled with people who didn’t take life’s consequences seriously.

Sometimes, we can’t do it all ourselves and we need help.  The Lord is waiting on us to call upon Him for His help.  However, calling upon the Lord requires humility and an admission that we need help.

PRAYER:

Dear God, I've come so far over the past year, But I also have so far to go I need Your guidance.  I promise I'll be quiet.  I'm not a patient person, but I know You can help me through all of my pain.

Whatever it is that is making me feel like this God, this is me asking for Your help.  This is me saying I can't do this by myself.  Just please help protect me....from me.

Show me the light at the end of the tunnel.  I know I will get through everything I’m facing because I know You are going to be there with me.

Anyway, I thought I'd just say thanks one last time and ask one more time...please help.