Daily Devotional for August 14, 2018
Roots and All
Luca looked up from his job of pulling dandelions as his friend Roman pedaled his bike up the driveway. “Hey,” called Roman. “Let’s go swimming at the park.”
“Can’t,” Luca replied. “My mom says she’s sick of seeing yellow dandelions instead of green grass, and I have to get rid of them.” He held up the tool he was using. “I work around the plant with this so I can pull out the whole root—and they sure go deep!” He wiped his brow with a dirty hand. “It’s really hot too.”
“Yeah,” said Roman. “Too hot to do it that way. Why not just cut the tops off? Here, I’ll help you. We’ll be done sooner, and then we can go swimming.”
“Okay,” Luca said. The boys soon finished the job and were off to the park.
Several times in the next few weeks, the dandelions sprouted back up and Mom sent Luca out to pull them again. Each time, he simply cut off the tops.
One day Mom came out to talk to him. “I didn’t understand why we kept getting so many dandelions, but now I see the problem. You aren’t pulling them up by the roots the way I showed you.”
“Oh,” said Luca, looking at the weeds in his hand. “I didn’t think it mattered so much, as long as you couldn’t see them.”
“But it does matter,” said Mom. “If the roots are still in the ground, the dandelions grow right back. You have to get rid of the whole thing—roots and all.”
That evening, Dad heard about the returning dandelions. “That’s a good example of the way we sometimes treat sin in our lives,” he said thoughtfully. “If it isn’t seen by other people, we often think it doesn’t matter. But just because it isn’t visible to everyone else doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful. No matter how much we try to cover it up, it will keep popping back up in our lives, hurting us and others.” Dad looked at Luca. “Do you know how to root out sin instead of just trying to hide it?”
Luca nodded. “We need to know Jesus. Then instead of trying to hide our sin, we can ask Him to forgive us.”
Dad nodded. “And set our minds on the new life we have in Him.” – A. W. Smith
How about you?
Is there a sin in your life you’re trying to keep covered so others won’t see it? No matter how you try to hide a sin, it will keep popping back up. It needs to be pulled up by the roots, and the only way to do that is to confess it to Jesus. Even though you may continue to struggle with that sin, don’t let it stay covered up. Remember that Jesus has freed you from the power of sin and will always forgive you.
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