If you enjoy keeping a garden or flowerbed, you already know the universal rule of gardening: nobody has to plant the weeds.

You can carefully plant your tomatoes, fertilize the soil, water the seeds, and keep watch—and sure enough, without any help from you, crabgrass and dandelions show up anyway. That’s just the nature of the ground we live on.

The spiritual life works much the same way. You can have every good intention to follow Jesus closely, but the cares of this world, the distractions of the 24-hour news cycle, petty arguments, and old selfish habits have a way of quietly sprouting up in our hearts. If we ignore them, they end up choking out our peace and crowding out what really matters.

The Apostle Paul gave us practical advice on how to tend the garden of our hearts:

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:22-24

Spiritual growth requires a daily rhythm of weeding and planting.

“Putting off the old self” means being honest when we spot envy, gossip, bitterness, or worry creeping in, and handing those things over to God. “Putting on the new self” means choosing to clothe ourselves in kindness, humility, and trust.

You don’t have to hide the weeds from God—He already sees the garden. The good news is, He’s the Master Gardener, always ready to help us pull them up and plant something better in their place.

Is there a weed of worry, bitterness, or distraction that needs to be handed over to the Lord today?