Depression, fear and anxiety;
 
Please note that these things are written as an encouragement, please take from them that which may help or apply to you and ignore anything that you may feel is critical or condemning. These words (of mine) are not meant to condemn, so don’t look for that here.  Some of this may apply to you or someone you know and it may not.  Prayerfully choose what you can use to be encouraged, challenged, equipped and built-up in your spirit. What doesn’t apply to you, treat just like chaff, thrown aside to be blown away by the wind.  
 
And now like the Levites in Nehemiah we say  ‘This day is holy to the Lord our God: mourn not nor weep… and be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold... and they quieted the people saying, Be still, for the day is holy. And do not be grieved and sad.’ (Nehemiah 8:9 onwards)
 
For a moment please imagine in your mind’s eye - a garden overgrown and needing love and attention, with various weeds that have taken over the flower beds and vines growing over the bushes. We could assume that the owner has been unable, unwilling or just too busy to keep this garden neat. The beauty of this garden is presently hidden, the flowering bushes are bent down and burdened over by strangling vines. The old order has been replaced with disorder. There are some piles of leaves and other fallen twigs and rubbish scattered about that needs to be collected and thrown onto a bonfire. Weeds have been allowed to go to seed and they are now self-perpetuating. It has become a little ugly and certainly it has fallen from its former glory, not the way its creator intended. It requires some work to clean it up, trim everything back, pull out the weeds, remove the vines, break up the soil, fertilize it and then it will require ongoing work to keep it in shape and neat.
Somehow seeds have blown in over the wall, that were never intended for this garden and little birds have dropped seeds that do not belong here.
 
To bring this garden back into an ordered, beautiful and useful state requires, hard work, persistence, determination and sticking-with-it-on-a-daily-basis. Some plants which are not wanted, the gardener tears up and throws onto the fire. He trims the branches of bushes, in such a fashion that they will bring forth the best fruit, each in it’s particular season. He plants, He waters, He trims, He nurtures, He weeds and fertilizes that He might enjoy their colours, to smell their fragrances and to see a fruitful health-giving harvest. The gardener is vigilant, always on the lookout for anything that doesn’t belong or is unwanted.
 
In Matthew 13:22 also in Mark 4:19 we read that ‘The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.’
 
In a like manner to this imagined garden, we humans can let our hearts and minds and our spiritual lives go untended for a season and within that secret garden, the weeds may have been allowed to grow tall and the strangling vine has now crept up and in heaviness and oppression it has shut-out the precious light and water that was meant for the flowers and the fruit trees. Plants that required daily water, wilt and shrivel through lack of attention.
 
If we lack prayer and attention in our own spiritual lives and the lives of those for whom we love, if we are not vigilant, in a short time the weeds can get out of control and sadly; order naturally always heads towards disorder. Action and input and planning and determination is required for order to come from disorder. It will not just happen.
We must therefore with determination and persistent work, attack those weeds to bring things back into order. Daily, persistent, determined work is required. Initially a heavy hand is required and then longterm daily follow up work must be done.
We are responsible for our own lives (our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit) and those precious lives around us and it is our task to uphold them in prayer by taking these things to task, which would grow up around our lives and oppress them, like a parasitic strangling vine. One swift blow with the spoken Word of God (which is the Sword of The Spirit) in the authority of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, will sever any strangling oppressive vines at the very root. Follow up prayer is then required, as they may re sprout and there may be seeds still hiding in the soil.