Is having so much hurting us, instead of blessing us?

Jesus said that being too focused on the things in our earthly lives will inhibit the growth of our relationship with God.

In a story about seeds scattered on many types of soil, he says that some of the seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.

Jesus’ disciples knew that the story was more than just a tale of a farmer trying to plant a field, but they didn’t get the point; so they asked Jesus about the deeper meaning of the story.

Jesus tells them, The seed is God’s word. And whether or not God’s word produces fruit depends upon the soil on which it falls.

Being too preoccupied with the things by which we measure life here on earth can strangle seeds planted in us that are meant to bear fruit.

In a chapter of his book, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, Francis Chan writes about all the things that consume our time and energy, “the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become.”

       When we put it plainly like this–as a direct choice between God
       and our stuff–most of us hope we would choose God. But we need
       to realize that how we spend our time, what our money goes toward,
       and where we will invest our energy is equivalent to choosing God or
       rejecting Him. How could we think for even a second that something
       on this puny little earth compares to the Creator and Sustainer and
       Savior of it all?

Chan entitled that chapter, “Serving Leftovers to a Holy God.”

Any tender plants out there, struggling to survive against lots of thorns? Take a quick inventory of your day — are you nourishing the message and pulling the weeds, or are the thorns already so rampant that tender plants have no chance of growing to maturity?

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 Scriptures from Mark 4 and Luke 8.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan is published by David C. Cook
Copyright 2008 Francis Chan. Crazy Love published by David C Cook. Publisher permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.