April 27 2011, 1:04 pm | Daniel Bollen
The past few weeks have provided plenty of rain in central Arkansas. Normally, I welcome the rain. It makes my grass grow nice and thick and it makes the flowers and shrubs in my flowerbed look pretty. The past few weeks however, it seems like every time I get ready to mow my yard, a thunderstorm decides to hover over my neighborhood for a few hours. This doesn’t seem like it should be a problem but it wasn’t until today that I realized something very important about the rain: weeds and unwanted brush like the rain too. I was so excited and focused on the grass and flowers in my front yard being watered (for free I might add) that I failed to realize the jungle that exploded in my backyard! There were plants, weeds, and bushes growing back there that I have never even seen before, and I swear I saw a monkey. I was so ashamed and embarrassed that it had gotten that bad, but I am thankful for the valuable lesson I learned.
So often in life, we experience seasons of growth. Times where things are growing and blooming. But I learned today, that if I am not careful and I become too busy watching the growth in my front yard, areas that I normally keep under control like my backyard will get out of control because weeds like the rain too. I must constantly work to maintain control of areas that if left unattended will explode into a jungle.
What does the jungle in my backyard have to do with anything? Recently, our church has experienced an incredible time of revival. What started with a Sunday morning church service that went from 11:00am to 2:30pm (our services normally let out between 12:30-12:45) has turned into over three weeks of meeting almost every night for 3-4 hours of prayer and the Spirit of God moving in a powerful way in our church as well as our community (we are one of many churches in Central Arkansas that are experiencing the Holy Spirit move). However, I believe the same lesson I learned this morning can be applied to our spiritual lives. If we are so focused on the awesome things that God is doing in our lives that we neglect the things that we have worked to keep under control, then before you know it, a jungle full of weeds and brush has sprung up and gotten out of control.
1 Peter 5:8 -9 says:
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
In the same way that I need to constantly mow and clean up my yard if I want to keep the jungle at bay, as a believer, I need to constantly walk with the Lord through prayer, bible study, and other practices that draw me closer to him. The last thing Satan is going to do during a season of growth and health is take a break. Like weeds that flourish during seasons of rain, Satan will use times of spiritual growth and health in our own lives to blind us to areas that God has called us to work on because they are areas where we may be weak or they are areas where the enemy may constantly attack us like sexual purity, alcohol abuse, pride, (insert whatever sin you like). Don’t let a good season be spoiled by a wicked enemy… “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).