"The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it." Mark 4:18-22 (The Message)

I've recently spent some time weeding our flower beds. I observed some things that have a lot to do with our own lives. Weeds can grow (and often do) in the same soil, the same conditions, and want the same place that the good plant grows in. They spring up unbidden, and some of them can lie in the ground for several years as weed seeds, just waiting for the right season to spring up. Left unattended they will eventually "take over" even the best of gardens planted with the most precious of plants. They compete for the nutrients, the water, the space, the sun, and tend to outgrow the chosen plants. Their roots become entangled in the roots of good plants and become very hard to separate out. Both weeds and chosen plants are live, growing things, but the main difference is that the weed is good for nothing, while the chosen plant is good for something.

There is no ground that naturally is found ready to plant. All ground must be prepared, must be worked, plowed, and weeded systematically, if it is to be good ground. Otherwise it could become as Jesus says, ground full of weeds that will choke out the seed of God's word from our lives.

The word of God is the kind of seed that can bring forth abundantly the fruit of righteousness in our lives, if we do not allow it to be choked out by the weeds of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for things other than the good things God has planned for.

It may be time for you to do some weeding of your own, if you are to maximize your fruitfulness in the kingdom of God.