Late yesterday afternoon, I was outside working on the lawn. I had put down some fresh grass seed in that bare spots over the weekend, and knowing that rain was coming last night, I rushed home from work and pulled out the fertilizer. I got the front and side yards all done. I'm not too worried about the backyard, that always looks good in warm weather.

I decided I wanted to put some seed alongside the fence out back. It was matted down with leaves, so I began to rake them, and I noticed the weeds! I snapped this picture while I still had daylight. From the looks above ground, these weeds, which are all along the fence, are dead. But I know enough about plant life to know that though it indeed appears dead to my eye, just below the surface, it's a whole other story. These weeds can't just be mowed down, or broken off at the ground, there are roots that need to be pulled up. As any good gardener will tell you, if you don't get the whole root, you didn't get the weed. It will be back.

It's the same way spiritually. Oftentimes we are quick to take note of the obvious sins in our lives, while not noticing that there is a root. Just because we can't see it doen't mean it isn't there. We may look at the sin we find ourselves committing outwardly, such as lying, or cussing, or viewing pornography, and do our best to end the outward behavior. Yet how many times do we humans fall back into the same trap again? We weep over our sin, and we cry out to God for forgiveness. And he grants us that forgiveness. But I believe we are simply mowing down a weed that comes back. There is a root to get rid of. I like what David said:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me- Psalm 51:10

The occasion behind this Psalm was David's adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, and his subsequent hit he put out on Uriah's life, having him killed. David had sunk to an amazing low, all because of a lust for Bathsheba that had taken root in his heart. Instead of turning to God for deliverance, he ran to his sin. Bathsheba became pregnant as a result of their affair, and it wasn't until the baby was about to be born that God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David. When we read Psalm 51, we are reading David's prayer of repentence to God.

So, when David asks God to create in him a clean heart, he wasn't asking God to forgive him, he already had done that in verses 2 and 7. What David was doing was asking God to give him a new heart. That word for create means to make something out of nothing, as when God created the universe. He wanted a life in which there were no roots of sin.

The good news for us today is that we are works in progress. If you are a born-again Christian, your faith in Christ alone, then he is working on you. Philippians 1:6 says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus". God has promised that he will finish the work he started when you repented of you r sin and put your trust in Christ Jesus. So, let the Lord continue to work on you, and get all the roots of sin out! God bless, friends!