It’s almost spring. The time for new growth is upon us. My tree outback has already started budding, and I have plants that need tending in the front. Unfortunately, my poor landscaping has the worst keeper imaginable.

I water the plants, care for them with due diligence, but I can’t seem to make them grow.

Last year, a squirrel ate away on my rose bushes and my pear tree. I cayenne peppered the landscaping to death, read articles online but found no success. As if to taunt me, my new busy-tailed friend would throw my fruit from the rooftop. I couldn’t beat this mocking creature to each rosebud or ripened pear. My landscaping suffered and still looks the worse for it.

Life is sometimes a lot like that, too. We fight enemies large and small. We can’t seem to find lasting success or peace. We’re tired of the week by the end of Monday, and we certainly could use an extra hour of sleep. As Christians, we sell ourselves so short. We don’t need to find a solution for all of our problems. The Bible says, “we are more than conquerors.”

So why can’t we conquer the day-to-day?

Jesus tells a story in Matthew 13 that dramatically illustrates the answer.

Once, there was a farmer. He tossed his seeds to the ground, sowing them into the soil and hoping for a harvest. But some landed beside the road, some fell between the rocks, and others amongst the thorns. None of these grew. They didn’t have a chance. Jesus says the ones beside the road were snatched up. The ones in the rocks didn’t grow root, and those in thorns were choked by the weeds.

Some of us live life as these plants. We know of God. We know of His Son, but we haven’t really fully chosen to follow Him. Our roots aren’t developed. The weeds or world around us may choke out our belief. So why can’t we conquer the day-to day? Well, we likely don’t know God, not truly, not personally, and so we can’t experience His peace. Want to know more? Check out “The Greatest Story”.

Maybe, like me, you’ve heard this before. Maybe you know of the final seed that I’ve yet to mention. It landed in good soil. It grew root. If we truly claim to know God, that should be us!

We should live life as conquerors. So why, then, am I not conquering the day-to-day?

Maybe it’s as simple as where you’re leaning. See, Romans 8:37, says:

But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Through Him who loved us…Did you catch that? Our roots are weak on our own. We only conquer through His love, through placing our foundation in our Savior. It can’t be that we strive to succeed on our own merits. We will fail. We need a foundation built to withstand life’s storms, and the only one capable of rooting us is Jesus Christ.