Mid-week Devotional:
Week of January 11, 2026
Scripture for this week’s Mid-week Devotional comes from the New Testament book of Matthew; Matthew 13:37-43.
Hear the Word of God.
“37 … ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’”
This is God’s Word for God’s people. AMEN.
From where I sit typing on my computer this week’s devotional, I can see across our yard to the pile of mulch that we had delivered in the fall of 2023. Each year we apply a thick layer of mulch on our two large vegetable gardens plus numerous flower beds spread around our 2-acre yard. We use mulch as a way to keep the number of weeds down to a minimum. I was excited when the company we had used in the past delivered the mulch. In the past the mulch was weed free but that was not true for the mulch they delivered in 2023.
Within the pile of mulch there are huge tree trunks, branches, and thousands, upon thousands of seeds and roots of nut grass. Here in Texas nut grass is a weed. It propagates through underground runners and so when you see one nut grass in your garden you know that it is connected to at least 10-20 other nut grass plants. If one ignores the existence of even one nut grass plant eventually nut grass will take over the entire area. The nut grass consumes all the nutrients and water from the soil and the vegetables and flowers planted in that area eventually wither and die. Even though we haven’t used any of the mulch since we first used it in 2023, we continue to dig up nut grass in all the gardens. The seeds are there within the soil waiting for the right time to grow and spread throughout the garden.
Looking at the pile of mulch and thinking upon Jesus’ explanation of His parable of the weeds as recorded in Matthew 13 moves me to reflect upon my journey of faith. I ask myself as a follower of Christ, one of the “37… children of the kingdom” Jesus speaks about in his explanation, the hard questions…
Have there been times during my journey of faith that I have been negligent?
Have there been times during my journey of faith that the world around me enticed me to live the ways of the world and not the ways of the faithful?
My honest answer to both questions is yes there have been times …
Each morning when I wake up, I am reminded that God has graced me with another day of life.
Each morning when I wake up, I am reminded that there may be times when “the weeds of the world” like the nut grass in my gardens will appear and attempt to prevent my faith from growing deeper and stronger.
Each morning when I wake up, the Holy Spirit reminds me that I am never alone for I am always surrounded by God’s presence.
God is always to my right, to my left, beneath me, above me, behind me, and in front of me leading and guiding me in the ways God would have me live as His disciple sharing the Good News to all those I meet.
I pray that each morning when you wake up…
may you take a deep breath and feel God’s presence surrounding you.
May it bring you strength to follow the ways God would have you go and not the ways of the world.
I will be praying for you.
Peace be with you.
AMEN.