Your Daily Devotional for September 5, 2007

 

September 5,  2007

 

 

Pulling the Weeds

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

 

Colossians 2:7-8

 

 

I remember as a kid going to my Grandfather Chappell's farm in Colorado. He was a bean farmer and our trips to his farm were usually filled with work around the farm. One thing we did was to pull the weeds in the crop. It was vital that we pull the weeds because if not, the weeds would steal the water and nutrients from the soil that the bean plants needed to grow. Even so, the weeds of sin can enter our lives and steal the water and nutrients of God's Word that we need to grow.

 

Yesterday we saw that in order to grow as families, we must be rooted in God and in His Word. We are all rooted in something, but God desires us to be rooted in His Word. It is not only important that we be rooted in God's Word, but also that we remove the weeds of sin that can enter our lives.

 

We see in Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Paul had told the church at Colosse in the previous verses that they needed to be rooted in God, but in verse eight he warned them to pull the weeds of sin and false teachings from their lives.

 

We must be so careful to guard against the weeds of sin in our families. The devil is attacking the family like never before, and he desires that our families would be so overrun with weeds that we would fail to live God's purpose for our lives! We cannot tolerate these weeds for one minute! We must pull these weeds as soon as they arise.

 

How can we properly deal with a weed of sin in our families? We must be able to identify the root problem. Sometimes we can see the fruit of the weed of sin but never deal with the root problem. While there may be the fruit of moral failure, the root problem is selfishness or lust. There may be a fruit of a lack of communication, but the root problem is bitterness. We must be careful to not only see the fruit of the weed, but also dig to the root of the problem and take care of it.

 

Also, we must seek God's help in pulling the weeds. Sometimes we can fail to see the weed of sin until it is already full grown. It is not easy to spot a small weed in your garden among the other green plants. But as we seek help from God in identifying root problems, we will be able to better guard against the weeds of sin.

 

God desires that we would all have healthy families that are rooted in Him, but the devil is on the offensive in placing weeds in our families. We must be on guard against these weeds and we must identify the root problem and ask God for help in keeping our family free from the weeds of sin.

 

How is your family doing today? Are there some weeds of sin that have come into your family? God desires that we would have healthy families that depend on Him. Ask God right now to help you guard against the weeds of sin in your family. Also ask Him to give you wisdom in seeing the root problem and strength in dealing with it. As we remain alert to the sin the devil throws our way, we will be able to, with God's help, keep a family that is growing closer to God.

 

 

 

Daily Bible Reading

Psalm 146-147 • 1 Corinthians 15:1-28

 

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