Growing in God's Word to Replace the Lies of the Enemy

One morning, an anxious thought came to me and I silently thought to myself: No, I rebuke this thought and it’s not true. It made me think about Matthew 4:1-11, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and how the devil used Scripture in an unsuccessful attempt to tempt the perfect Jesus. Immediately after my thought, a clear picture of a white flower weed came to my mind—out of nowhere.

Quickly, I did an online search of white flower weeds, because I had forgotten the name. The flower picture turned out to be a White Clover. As I was reading about how to get rid of white clovers in lawns, it occurred to me that the lies of the enemy are like weeds that can take root in our minds and overtake our lives if we are not spiritually growing in God’s Word. My white clover picture was a spiritually analogy!

This sentence seemed to pop from the website page: “Clovers will grow in areas of low nitrogen and where competition from other plants is small.” The article mentioned how white clover weeds are “typically found in lawns, especially sparse lawns where the competition from grass is weak.” Lawns that are well-fertilized help to prevent weeds, just like Scripture helps to prevent the enemy from deceiving us with lies. Our faithfulness to study the Bible grows us spiritually, which equips us to stand our ground against our enemy.

This white clover analogy is such an encouragement to grow in the truth of God’s Word, the Bible, and ultimately in our relationship with God. Sadly, we can often believe the lies of the enemy in areas that we are weak with Scripture. This is because the lies have no competition from other plants, such as the truths found in God’s Word. In other words, when God’s truth is stored in our hearts, we are able to fight the lies and temptations of the enemy.

Think of God’s Word stored in our heart as a vibrant green lawn with a beautiful garden of flowers. That well-fertilized lawn keeps the weeds away, just as Scripture keeps the lies and temptations of the enemy from overtaking us. So, by ensuring that our spiritual lawn is well-fertilized, we will not only grow vibrant grass and beautiful flowers, but we will help to prevent weeds, like white clovers and deceit from the enemy, by causing the soil to be less friendly for them to grow. Simply put, keeping our hearts full of God’s Word will grow us spiritually to protect us from the lies and temptations of the enemy.

When we recognize an area where we need to grow spiritually, let us turn to God and what His Word says about the issue. If we remain spiritually weak, we can risk the enemy planting weeds—lies—instead of us having the beautiful plants of God’s truths. When we fertilize our minds with the truths that are found in God’s Word, then we grow spiritually and closer to God. Which keeps the lies and temptations—weeds—from taking root in our minds. When our minds are fully immersed in Scripture, there is no room for lies. If we are believing a lie from the enemy, we can seek God and His Word to fertilize our minds and replace those lies with truth. May we always pull up the weeds and fertilize with God’s Word!