They spout empty words
and make covenants they don’t intend to keep. So injustice springs up among them
like poisonous weeds in a farmer’s field Hosea 10:4

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

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In my garden lives a vine like weed, long with thorns and grows quickly. It starts off thin in trunk, and it can get quite thick. Eventually, if it is left totally unchecked it wraps itself around the other plants and strangles the life out of them. Do you have a weed like that? Do you notice that if it is cut, it will spring a new vine in a matter of days unless the roots are removed. Even if it is placed on the ground, it can easily plant itself right there unless one is vigilant. Today we are taking a look at our heart weeds that are chocking up our gardens.

Firstly, we have to examine the state of our hearts? Do we have any weeds? Do we have anxious hearts (Psalm 139:23)? Are our hearts filled with deceit plotting evil (Proverbs 12:20)? Do we have broken hearts that crush our spirits (Proverbs 15:13) ? Do we have stony, stubborn hearts? What weeds have you found lurking in your hearts? These weeds of anxiety, deceit and brokenness if left unchecked, will become stony and stubborn and will destroy our hearts and ultimately us. Observe the persons in our key verse (Hosea 10:4) whose words are empty as they make covenants that they do not intend to keep leading to injustice springing up among them like poisonous weeds. Wow! Empty hearts and empty mouths! Can you imagine that injustice begins with us being anxious, broken, deceitful , breaking promises eventually stony, stubborn hearts? No wonder Jesus said in Luke 6: 45 : “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. So the question is: What’s in our treasury? What are we harbouring in our hearts? Are poisonous weeds destroying us from the inside starting out small and thin slowly growing longer, thicker and killing our hearts softly until they are unrecognizable. When these heart weeds are so thick we cannot remove them ourselves. We have to say with the Psalmist “Search me O God and know my heart” (Psalm139:23 as the spotlight shines on our scarred and damaged hearts.

Secondly, the spotlight of God having revealed that our hearts are sinful, scarred and have fallen short of God’s glory, we must confess in the words of Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart O God” so that our hearts can be transformed. Let us ask God to change our hearts and the hearts of our descendants so we can love him with all our hearts and souls (Deuteronomy 30:6). Like Nehemiah who mourned, fasted and prayed, let us confess that our hearts have broken covenant with the Lord: “For days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people … I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.” Confession will release our hearts from the weeds that are strangling us like generational heart grudges and unforgiveness. Stop right now and confess to God and release these weeds that have been besetting us!

Thirdly, having confessed our sins, aka weed removal from our hearts, we now have to invite Christ to make his home in our hearts and accept his word planted in us and give us new hearts. For this garden transformation we have to ask God to give us singleness of heart, new spirits and tender responsive hearts that are able to flourish with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Father give us singleness of heart so we can focus on you and starve the distractions beckoning at us. When our hearts are focused we can have hearts that are glad (Proverbs 15:13), wise (Proverbs 23:15), confident to sing God’s praises and filled with joy planning peace (Proverbs 12:20)

Finally, having been blessed with new responsive hearts, maintenance is very important. Remember that I told you that if we were not vigilant then the weeds would return. Proverbs 4:23 warns us to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. That warning should be taken seriously as we want our life’s course to be what God created it to be. We want to fulfil our destiny and that cannot happen unless we trust and love God with all our hearts, souls and minds and not lean on our own understanding. Hearts that listen to God for instructions will become rooted, grounded, stronger, sincere and truthful. This will lead to good judgement which will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it” (Psalm 94:15). So what are we waiting for let us embrace the freedom of a new heart.

Father we come to you confessing our sins of the heart knowing you are just and faithful to remove the weeds from our hearts. Forgive us now and new hearts. Fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit and give us tender, responsive hearts that have singleness of purpose. We will exercise good judgement and justice in Jesus’ name. Amen.