“So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.” James 1:21 (MSG)

The human heart is much like a garden. If left to itself, the soil would produce only weeds. James was aware of our hearts’ tendencies to be overtaken with such valueless intruders that choke out the fruit God desires. James urges us to pull out all of the garbage (weeds) in our lives that keeps us from growing up in Him. God has good plans for all of us. Yet, these plans are intertwined with our spiritual maturity. So how can we grow when the condition of our hearts have become in disarray?

First, let’s confess our sins and ask the Father to forgive us (1 John 1:9). Then, let’s allow “our gardener,” God, to “plow up” the soil in our hearts that has been producing weeds. This is easier said than done, but God is a master gardener and knows exactly what He is doing. Trust in Him.

James then says, we are to have an attitude of humility when receiving God’s word. In other words, don’t try to argue with or twist it to conform to our own thinking. There are many Christians who like to argue their “points of view” on various issues, but may only be fooling themselves. We may think we’re maturing, when in reality we are only cultivating weeds.

Let’s open our hearts every day for what the Lord has planned to cultivate in us!