I was tilling
my garden the other day with my Rototiller when I hit a fairly large rock with
the tines of the machine as it was attempting to turn over the soil. It struck
me at that moment that I have been tilling and picking rocks out of the same patch
of ground for 18 years. I’m amazed that I never hit that particular rock
before. Then I looked up and saw the pile of rocks I have been making for much
of those years under the bushes next to the garden. There were so many. You
would think they’d all have been removed by now but they aren’t. I’m still
discovering new ones to be pulled out and thrown in the bushes.
The rocks remind
me of sin in a Christian’s life. God reveals things about our lives that need
removing from the day we were born again. You would think that after all these
years of walking with the Lord there would be nothing left to be removed. Yet in
the process of our daily walk we inevitably hit another stone that needs to be
dug up and thrown in the pile.
Some might
say, “That’s depressing.” “When will the rocks be all gone?” The answer is they’ll
never be all gone as long as we live, but I’m not worried because I know that
there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ.” The other reason is
that I am thankful that these things are revealed to help make me conform to
His image.
In Joshua
7:26 Achan was buried under a large pile of rocks because he didn’t deal with
his sin. Let’s not be buried by our sin, let’s continue to be over-comers
through the power of the Holy Spirit as we walk in the light of His love and
forgiveness. God is patient. We must be patient too while we work in His field
and focus on the grace given to us. When we hit a rock in the garden we don’t
ignore it, we deal with it in the light of His presence, and the rock becomes a
place of renewed fellowship with Jesus.
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| Years of Rocks |
