OCTOBER 15
“. . . and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word,
and he becometh unfruitful.”
Matthew 13:22
This is the seed that is sown among the thorns. The soil is
productive, but it is full of latent weed-seeds. The good seeds
spring up and it appears there will be a bumper crop, but soon
the thorns spring up too, and before we hardly know it, the
crop has been choked out by volunteer weeds. The thorns are
not as we might suppose, the terrible sins which all recognize
as from the devil, but rather the everyday activity, the daily
cares, which in themselves are neither good nor bad, but which
when pursued and allowed to fasten upon us become anxieties
that choke out the faith by which the Christian is to live.
“And the deceitfulness of riches”—not necessarily the riches
themselves, but the fact that we attribute worth to them that
is not there, and cultivate the riches instead of the corn! Luke
adds, “and the pleasures of this life”. How sadly the word of
God is forsaken for the pleasures of this life! When we ought
to be meditating upon the law of God, we are reading the works
of men, or taking pleasure in the TV program which is written
and produced by those who know not Christ. Time and energy
spent in pleasure cannot be used again. The first soil was impenetrable;
the second was shallow and allowed no root; but
this soil is fertile with great possibilities. The trouble is that
the hearer is a man who is unwilling to cut out the weeds and
thorns, unwilling to cut loose from the world in order to care
for the things of God, unwilling to give up the riches of the
world for the riches of eternity, unwilling to give up the pleasure
of life for the pain of God’s discipline.
The country is filled with those who receive the word, but
whose lives are so choked with concern for things other than
God’s purpose, that they are unfruitful. We cannot cultivate
thorns and corn in the same field. The thorns have to go. We
must go into ourselves and pull out by the roots the cares and
greed and pleasure that is taking up our time and sapping our
energy.
PRAYER: Loving Father, give me the power to see the thorns that have infested
my life. Then give me the courage to uproot them from my life, that Your word may
have complete freedom. This I pray in the name of my Lord, Jesus. Amen.
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