By: Christine Wood
The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.
This line in the familiar parable jumped off the page and echoed around in my heart.
The parable of the sower is well-known. We read it in Matthew 13. Jesus tells a story about sowing seed—a familiar picture to the crowd of farmers. He talks about the different types of soil, the seed that is scattered and the fruit that eventually grows.
Jesus doesn’t always do this, but later, when He is sitting with His disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the parable in detail.
This is the verse that grabbed me:
Jesus said, “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.”
(Matthew 13:22)
Do I have thorns in my soil? Is my heart distracted by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth?
The problem with weeds: They choke out the good plants. They demand more than their fair share of the resources: sunlight, nutrients, water and space. They suck the energy out of my garden, leaving nothing of value for the fruit-bearing plants.
And this is exactly what the worries of life and the pursuit of wealth do to our faith. It sucks our energy until we have nothing left; it limits our capacity for fruitfulness.
The worries of this life
Life is hard. There is a lot to worry about. The 24-hour news cycle reminds us of the trouble of the world. Our family relationships are complicated at best and heartbreaking at worst. Workplace stress is off the scale. Our culture is riddled with anxiety and depression.
We’ve grown addicted to independence and self-sufficiency. We have everything we need, so we ignore our need for God. But, because so much of life is out of our control, we spiral into worry.
Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
(Matthew 6:34)
Worry steals our joy and gives us nothing in return. We cannot change our circumstances by worrying about them. “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (Luke 12:25) Worrying does more harm than good, but, we still find ourselves with thoughts of dread crowding our minds and keeping us awake at night.
The Solution: Turn Worries into Prayers
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
(Philippians 4:6)
Instead of worrying, we need to pray. Rather than trying to solve our own problems and figure everything out ourselves, we need to look to God and trust Him with the circumstances of our lives.
The deceitfulness of wealth
Wealth deceives us into a false sense of security. Wealth lies to us, promising peace it doesn’t deliver.
The world tells us the more we have the happier we’ll be. The answer to our problems is to get more money, so we work hard to get a promotion to earn a higher pay grade. When we can’t afford the things we want it’s no problem, we can buy them now and pay for them later with hundreds of credit options. Before we know it, we’re drowning in debt to pay for things we don’t really need.
Paul wrote to the young pastor, Timothy:
“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
(1 Timothy 6:17)
It’s easy to believe the lie that our money will save us, but it won’t. Only Jesus can do that. Money doesn’t make us happy. Only a relationship with Jesus can fill the longing for meaning in our hearts.
Pulling the Weeds
We need to regularly tend to the garden of our hearts, pulling out all the weeds. When our lives are full of thorns, there is no room for our faith to grow, and our lives are unfruitful. We need to examine our hearts and pull out any weeds that are choking out our faith.
What are you worried about? Spend some time committing those cares to God in prayer. What are you depending on? Has a desire for more money grasped your heart? Take your fears to God and ask for His forgiveness and assurance.
I love to pray the words of the Psalmist:
“Search me, God, and know my heart: test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23–24)
The post The Parable of the Sower: Thorny Ground appeared first on Living With Margins and has been reproduced with permission.
