spiritual farming part 2 -- rooted weeds

I knew I should have dealt with this weeks ago...

With the heat wave granting few comfortable daytime hours, the weed in the backyard flowerbed cemented itself like a weathered tree. It choked the daisies until the scorching sun could finish their slow death. The best I could do was chop the weed above the surface, leaving the deep rooted trunk to continue its destruction. If only I had removed it before it fortified its control.

Satan's strongholds establish themselves in the same manner. The unconfessed sin, unresolved pain, and the unforgiven act take root immediately. We do not want to admit we are broken -- that we are weak. We push the process of freedom aside, and move forward as if nothing has happened, but soon our fruitfulness is choked. We invest so much energy grooming the weed on the surface that we ignore what has taken root. Before we know it, we are bound, lifeless, and lost for a solution.

God isn't interested in the ugly demonstration above the ground. We can fight the symptoms as we'd like, but the only freedom will occur at the root. God would have us face our deepest wound.

This is not about a struggle to co-exist with our stronghold -- anyone can function while harboring a nasty weed, if they keep it trimmed enough. But He intends more. He intends to declare His beauty. Flowers cannot bloom where the weed has stretched its roots; neither can we bear witness to His grace and His Spirit where a stronghold resides.

I grieve for my heart, because it was so avoidable. Had I opened my heart to His truth ten years ago, Satan's ploy would have been exposed. Had I acknowledged my sin and my pain, His loving hands would have gone to work. He would have dug deep into the roots Satan had sown and delivered me from my residual wounds. I would have been boasting of the fruit He had produced through this vessel.

I took the long road to freedom, but thankfully, the Gardener is the same. It hurt worse and was prolonged beyond what I should have endured. But He was faithful to the task. He set me free. He spurred my growth. He made me bloom.