KEY SCRIPTURE Proverbs 12:3
A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
APPLICATION
What's happening beneath the surface of your life?
What would God find if He furrowed down to your roots—to the very foundation of your life? Would He find it successful in uncomplicated righteous or diseased in parts and slowly being choked by the world?
Daisy was a large, colourful, beautiful yellow plant in our front garden. She stood proud amongst other plants and flowered for a long season. But, I took my eyes off Daisy for a while, just long enough for the couch (cooch) grass to enter her little kingdom and wrap its neutralising tentacles around her heart.
Despite attempts to extract the wicked weed, it was clear I had left it too long. Ultimately, I had to remove Daisy and the couch grass, as she had died. When I dug her up, the damage I found necessitated an autopsy. We videoed the eleven-minute post-mortem on a newspaper-covered bench, and what I found was impacting.
The soil around Daisy's roots was hard and clay-like, utterly different from the soft, lush ground I had planted her in a couple of years before. The couch grass looked bad enough on the surface, but when explored the root zone which fed Daisy, it was entangled to the point of strangulation.
Every vascular root was intertwined, limiting her required supplies. Dailsy could no longer draw in those vital daily ingredients of water and minerals. She had to share them with the couch until the couch won, eventually taking them all. I concluded that the cause of Daisy's death was strangulation over time.
What percentage of your daily vital ingredients get consumed by couch grass? Your time, tithes & offerings, study, prayer, fellowship, communing with the Lord? Are they waning? Has your passion for the Lord slowed, or is your evidence of spiritual desire a little blurry? But now, has that dwindled to a small percentage?
Revelation 3:2-3 highlights the Sardis Church whose congregants had let the world overcome them, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."
The scripture sounds a lot like Daisy's life. Except Daisy could do nothing for herself. If Daisy could speak to you now, what would her message be? What wisdom or warnings would she impart?
Furthermore, what would she say if she could speak to me, her gardener? After all, I left her defenceless against a creeping, ever-growing, always subtle enemy. I was her Pastor!
Proverbs 27:23 convicts, "Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds."
Satan uses many subtleties to slow us down and strangle our faith, which affects our desire to follow Jesus Christ with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. If he can do enough of that, he will asphyxiate us, identically to Daisy.
We will die the death of Daisy. Once elegant and full of bloom, but in the end, a withered and dried stick bearing no resemblance to its former glory.
Don't wait for an autopsy on your spiritual life, wondering why and how you fell from grace. If we keep the main thing the main thing and remain ever watchful over our precious heart, we will give our best to our Saviour. If we put Him first, He will see us established.
PRAYER
Dear Lord, thanks for reminding me to be vigilant over myself and others who need me. Help us all to be aware of the creeping in of worldly influences.
Photo by Trac Vu
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