Fruitful in the midst of weeds

 Fruitful in the midst of weeds
Scripture reading: Matthew 13:24-30
Focus verse: Matthew 13:28-30 - He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” 

Weeds are very bothersome! We may love for our fields to stay without weeds. They not only compete for nutrients with our crops but they also can carry disease or can strangle our crops so that they don’t produce harvest. One funny thing with weeds is that they time your planting season and will come out as soon as your crops have begun to grow. We may use many methods to control them but still it’s so hard to take them all out completely.  
Jesus gives a parable of a man who sowed good seeds in his field, unfortunately the enemy came at night and planted tares. As the grain grew, the tares also grew with them. The servants of the man came to him and asked him to grant them permission so they could uproot all the tares but the man declined. Instead, he tells them that lest they uproot the good crops in their attempt to uproot the tares. Again, he tells them to wait until harvest time when good crops were to be distinguished from the tares. Tares would then be gathered and burnt while good crops are harvested and taken to the barn.
Tares are works of Satan and they are his efforts to make you unproductive in your life as a believer. They can be life storms that one encounters in his walk with Christ and we all must go through them. We may want to do away with them as the servants’ of the man had wanted, but God is saying He has the best time and solution for each tare. Believers should still produce a harvest in the midst of tares. Challenges will always be part of our life experience since we have an enemy who is fighting against our new life in Christ. We need to keep being the light of God in the dark world and our light needs to shine where there is darkness. God will surely sustain our fruitfulness as long as we keep relying on Him.

Eliazar Wambo Nyakwadah