Enjoy Life's Pleasures, but...

Luke 8:7,14 “Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants…The seeds that were planted among thorns are people who hear the word, but as life goes on the worries, riches, and pleasures of life choke them. So they don't produce anything good.”

Riches and pleasures – that’s the second half of the equation that Jesus talked about saying that the Word of God sometimes is choked when we are too busy enjoying life.

But wait – look at what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5:19, “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life – this is indeed a gift from God.”

Health, wealth, pleasure...these are gifts from God.  In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with enjoying life.  It’s when we forget to include God in our life, when we forget to thank Him for our blessings, when we get so wrapped up in having fun that we eventually forget God is the One responsible for all the good we enjoy – that’s the kind of behavior that leads to low productivity.

Actually, Jesus says that when we are consumed with riches and pleasures we don’t produce anything good, and this makes perfect sense to me.  If always having fun and the money to finance all that pleasure were enough in life, rich and famous people would never commit suicide or get in trouble for bad behavior. 

I have often heard that, “So and so had everything.  Why did he kill himself?”  I have had that reaction myself.  This proves that wealth, fame, prestige, and fun are not enough.  There has to be something more to make sense of life.      

The key is to enjoy these gifts from God but not at the expense of God.  To live life joyfully but with the awareness that God is our Father, Protector, Provider, and Source of every blessing, and to always have a prayer of thanks at the ready.

That is the formula for true success.  When the seed heads our way, we water them with gratitude and stay connected to Christ.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We thank you for blessing us with so much.  Forgive for those times when we have been too busy having fun that we have forgotten about You.  Sometimes we only come to you when there a crisis and completely ignore You when everything is going smoothly.  You are the reason we are breathing, and wealth and health come from You.  We never want to choke the life-giving seed You desire to plant in our lives by being too busy for You.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~

Choke Our Worries~

Luke 8:7 “Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.”

Greetings, all you beautiful and blessed children of God,

Repeat after me: I am a victorious and precious child of the living God, and therefore I am blessed today wherever I go and in whatever I do!

Back to farming…

So far we have examined seed that fell onto a hardened path where it won’t grow because the ground is impenetrable.  And we have looked at the gravelly ground where the seed, for the tiniest moment, sprouted only to wither away at the first hint of trouble.  Today we look at the seed that fell among thorns.

Jesus explains: “The seeds that were planted among thorns are people who hear the word, but as life goes on the worries, riches, and pleasures of life choke them. So they don't produce anything good.”

In this scenario the seed grew, but the thorns grew right along with them and eventually choked the life-giving goodness out of them. 

We will get to riches and pleasure later, but I will say right off the bat that there is nothing wrong with enjoying both.  But let’s focus on worrying, which sometimes has a way of occupying so much of our thoughts that little by little we squeeze out God until He is entirely out of the picture.

You would think that the more we worry the more we would turn to God for help and comfort, but that’s not always the case.  Sometimes, our brains tilt toward an overload of worry to the point that we completely forget about God.

Just ask the daughter who was so consumed with caring for her elderly parent that before she knew it a month had gone by without her praying.

Talk to the businessman whose company was in serious financial difficulty, and he was so preoccupied with trying to save his business that he pushed God into a corner and forgot about Him.

And then there’s the mom whose teenager was giving her trouble. In between trying to help him graduate high school and caring for everyone else’s needs, God kept going further down on her list of priorities until He was no longer on the list.

I am pretty sure we can identify with these folks.  Isn’t it interesting that initially, both the seed and the thorns grew side by side?  But left unchecked, the thorns choked them to where nothing good was produced.  No peace, patience, faith, endurance, or wisdom anywhere. 

We must all do some weeding, and by that I mean PRAYING!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We come to You today and take this time to connect with You.  We are grateful that as we pray, You are choking the life out of the worry that sometimes consumes us.  Refresh our souls today.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~