Removing Stumps

Jeremiah 16:17
My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.
While driving to Union UMC church I saw that a homeowner was taking on the huge task of removing a sizable stump from their front yard. They had a huge hole dug around the stump as piles of earth that once fed the tree, and kept it secure against many storms, now ringed it as if paying it homage. It had been awhile since I had seen anyone remove a stump in this manner. Most take the labor-saving method of hiring a stump grinder to grind the stump below the surface, and cover the remnant, and leave it to rot.
I realized that we do this with sin in our lives. We take the easier route covering our sin thinking we can hide it from the world controlling it on our own. The problem is we cover it with the same bad behavior that had nursed the sin in the first place, allowing it to sit just below the surface becoming a cancer in our lives until it controls us.
We can never hide our sin from God. He wants us to take the hard route digging the sin out and removing habits nursing sin. It is only then we can walk in the freedom we have received from the blood of Christ. We are never alone in this hard process as we wear out our knees in prayer overcoming backsliding. There is always a friend that will come along, grab a shovel, lend a hand, keeping us accountable. God, who sees all sin, is there to help dig at the root, removing it from our lives. So grab a shovel, pickaxe, and meet me on my knees to remove that stump. Pastor Brian Davis