HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” Matthew 13:25

Through this messenger and that, this agency and that other — the Son of Man is ever dropping the good seed into my heart. But, side by side with it, the enemy is seeking to sow his poisonous weeds. Let me beware. Let me watch and pray.

Perhaps they are weeds of Knowledge. My very acquaintance with the Word of Life may do me infinite hurt and harm. Perhaps I am satisfied with this intellectual understanding — this mental familiarity and grasp. Ah, I need something better, deeper, more vital by far —

• the heart’s grip on the truth,
• the heart’s submission to it,
• the heart’s childlike and restful faith in it.

Perhaps they are weeds of Pride. There are elements in the message which I resent. They gall and wound me. They are too humbling, too lowering to my dignity, too damaging to my self-respect.

That I should be ranked with the chief of sinners,
that I have no goodness of my own,
that I must lean wholly on Jesus Christ
— it displeases me sorely.

Perhaps they are weeds of Procrastination. I am well aware of the significance of the Word of God. I feel its force and edge, its personal message, its inexpressible value. But, like the seeker in Rome long ago, I delay, “I, convinced by the truth, had nothing to answer but these dull and drowsy words, ‘Afterwards,’ ‘Shortly,’ ‘Yet a little while.”‘ Ah — but God’s adverbs are entirely different. They are “Now,” “Today,” and “Immediately.” Let me hear Him — rather than His adversary and mine.

So many weeds.

So vigilant and unresting an enemy.

So frail and danger-surrounded a soul.