Gardening

     All who garden and are breaking into an area that has not been yet "tamed" know that there is work in getting the ground ready for growing your selected plants. The ground has many seeds and roots from whatever has been allowed to grow their unmolested. Maybe it was native grasses, maybe weeds, or maybe even a carefully maintained lawn.
     No matter what was growing there it will have to be battled to allow the newly selected "crop" or plants to grow. First, you have to dig out all of the old plants, being sure to capture their roots in the effort. If you leave the roots then the already established plant will continue to grow and it does have the advantage on anything you're trying to get started there.
     After digging the old plants out and carefully placing your new seeds or plants and watch for growth you'll notice things growing that are not from the seeds you've just planted. That's because the previous tenants of that bit of soil have left behind their offspring to take their place!
     So after carefully digging out all of the old roots you'll need to continue to watch and carefully pluck any plants that try to grow and interfere with your new plants. I say carefully because your new seeds or plants are not yet established enough to not have their root systems damaged also if they are stirred around too much.
     Recently while hearing a message from our Pastor I realized that a new walk with the Lord Jesus is much the same as the process of changing your garden plants out! We need to root out all of the things of our old behaviour and be sure to not leave any part that can continue to grow. Then as we're planting new habits and patterns we need to watch watch for any of the old things to try to crop up from any old seeds left behind.
     Sometimes the root can be a generational root that runs so deeply that we're not even aware of it! It may be something that we just think of as being part of who we are, when in truth it's an old sinful nature that has jumped from generation to generation in our families! I'll share with you here my own old root so you're able to understand what I'm talking about. My family has an Irish background and we've always been proud that we were a "rebellious" bunch! Only after starting to have the Holy Spirit reveal things to me did I realize that rebellion is as divination (witchcraft).
 (For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. 1 Samuel 15:23) 
     Some families have fearful natures, or are sickly, or prideful, or argumentative, accident prone, flirtatious, drinkers, lazy, lying. The list can be quite long, but instead of accepting that that's the way our grandparents were and our parents and so we are , maybe we should examine or question if these are really habits of a godly life? (I know "godly life" sounds intimidating, but it just means a life walking closely with God!)
     When we're trying to grow new plants in our life, a new heart for God and a godly walk, God does most of the work for us, but we have to recognize when things are growing that are not part of our new walk and give them to Him to "root out". If we cling to our family traditions He won't make us give them up, but we will never grow in the way we need to because our new heart and new life is having the vitality stolen from it by the old ancestral root sins. And as a lot of gardeners know, the roots of some plants actually put out poisons to prevent any new plants from growing. We don't want to allow old family roots to prevent our new heart from growing! Search your family garden and see if you don't have some "root" that you need to deal with as I've had to with my root of rebellion, through much inner inspection and prayer time.
     Yes I've even taken drastic steps of binding and breaking it off and even with that done I can't turn my back on it for a moment because the seeds will still try to crop up. I desire to walk as closely with God as is possible this side of heaven and in order to do that I'm willing to weed my garden, daily!

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:20-24