Hell hath no fury like a rancher going after a batch of musk thistle.
Are all of my non-country/ranchin’ peeps confused? My bad. Let me back up and give you a quick lesson on ranching and horticulture.
Musk thistle is a nasty noxious weed. You know how dandelions spread? Yeah, musk thistles do the same thing. Honestly, they are a kind of a pretty purplish color when they are blooming… but it just takes one weed to go to seed and before you know it, the entire pasture is taken over, choking out the good grass.
Then the cattle have nothing to graze on and what started out as a smallish-weed is now a really big problem.
Sure it is pretty now… but wait til it spreads and takes over your whole pasture… Or in our case, life.
That’s why whenever I was out checking cattle with my dad in my younger days, no matter how busy we were or what we needed to do, if we spotted one of those notorious weeds, we would always stop what we were doing, bail out of the truck and dig it up with the small shovel we ALWAYS had in the back of our truck.
We should attack sin the same way.
A few posts ago, I talked about what can happen when we let sin just “sit” in our lives and fester. This is a similar concept. If we know there is an unrepented sin in our lives and we just ignore it, we give the devil a foothold. Next thing we know, it has spread to other areas of our lives, consuming us and choking out the good things in our life. Very similar to those yucky pasture thistles.
So what do we do? Well, we need to get out the shovel and some pesticide… And take care of business, like yesterday.
Sounds easy, right? If only. To an untrained eye (or heart, in this case) the alleged sin might look ok—or even pretty… just like that purple blooming musk thistle in the pasture. But don’t be fooled, friends. If you aren’t sure how to handle the sin or situation, take it to the Father. He LOVES it when we come to Him in love and submission. And He WILL help you…
He won’t leave you hanging. In fact, He will give you the tools to get rid of those “weeds” on a permanent basis if you are willing to commit the time and effort (and submission/dedication) necessary.
And once those weeds are gone… Then we no longer have the appearance of a thistle, but the blossoming glory of a heavenly garden.
Growing for Him,
SGK
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.” ~James 1:5-6 MSG
