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The Thorny Heart (Part 2)
WHAT ARE THESE CARES OF THE WORLD?
The Greek word for care is merimna. It means to be anxious beforehand about daily life. It denotes distraction, that is being drawn in different directions. It refers to whatever causes care, concern and fearful anxiety. It refer to anxiety as a destructive attitude. For example Jesus told Martha in (John 10:40-42) “Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her” (nkjv). This “good part” the “one thing” Mary chose and was commended was sitting at Jesus feet
and hearing His word – the word of God rather than care of the world –food and entertainment.
What are the things that cause anxiety, worry, distractions, destructive attitude, fear, restlessness, name it.?
Our earthly delights, the things we love and cherish. In Gen.(19:26) Lot’s wife so loved and cared about her possessions she left behind and in her heart imagined how God would really destroy them. She turned back without probably a second thought to recall the audible instructions. Hear! In Gen. (19:17)
“Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain.
Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed”(nkjv) But in (Gen 19:26) but his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (nkjv) The word of God she heard did not benefit her because of her cluttered mind with the cares of this world.
Jesus warned in (Luke 17:32) “Remember Lot’s wife” Furthermore this world consumes many by the cares and anxieties of this physical life.
The constant pressures of ordinary life, for example providing for our need: food, shelter, education, employment, social duties, religious activities and our cherished relationships can be distracting causing us to ignore God and His word, not to mention our personal spiritual growth.
Adam Clarke a commentator wrote “Man is anxious over worldly cares with the delusive hopes and promises of riches. This causes man to abandon concerns of the soul and seek in their place, what he shall eat, what he shall drink and wherewith all he shall be clothed.
It is the dreadful stupidity of man to barter spiritual for temporal good – a heavenly inheritance for empty portion”
These are some of the cares in this world that operate like thorns, weeds and ruts in our heart and crowd out the word of God and we lose its fruitfulness in our life”
There are innumerable cares and sources of distractions which invade the heart and mind of the believer.
There are lots of distractions in the world today. Sometimes believers have worked so hard to expand the frontiers of the kingdom yet the goings on in the nation bring discouragement or distractions and even worries and fears thereby giving them alternative suggestions. As a result we may lose focus, slow down or stop working for God. This can affect the fruitfulness we desire to produce from the word of God we have received.
The development we experience or see in the world daily are in technology, alternative lifestyle and other perversities and in some cases inconceivable vices.
The environment in which we operate sometimes chokes believers out of purpose.
Instead of influencing their environment they rather wither away. Instead of permeating the society they are influenced and controlled by it. As a result they change their messages to stay relevant.
Some Christians compromise character and introduce their doctrines in order to be politically correct and to belong or how do we explain the emergence of “progressive” or liberal”
Christianity among Christians in the world today?
In the age of Covid economic scourge or challenge many believers compromise on their faith for survival where no help is forthcoming.
The cares of this world are dangerous to the believer in fruit bearing. The challenge about cares is that they involve things that are necessary, legitimate and in many cases indispensable.
Take marriage for example. Marriage was instituted by God. Gen 2:18-25
The Lord said “ It is not good for the man to be alone. I’ll make him a helper, companion and presented her to the man… therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They became one flesh” (msg).
The bible also tells us marriage is a source of care, anxiety and distractions. In (1Cor 7:32-35) Paul tells us “everything you do, I want you to be free from the concerns of this life.
An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord's work and thinking how to please Him. But a married man can’t do that so well. He has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. His interest are divided”,(msg) This also applies to the wife.
Paul tells us, of course, there is no sin in marriage. But we know there is no marriage that does not bring divided loyalty to God especially when children are born, when they are so sick, are in school or looking for admission into good schools and looking for employment. But it is better to marry than to burn with passion which can enslave the heart and cause more sins and fruitlessness.
Let’s consider a little more on distractions. This as stated above is an unbelievably powerful source of distractions. Many even church leaders, have fallen prey to and failed to be fruitful and impart their flock with the love of God and His word. For this reason they are not experiencing the manifestation of the kingdom of God in their lives and those of their flock : Proverbs 15:14 says “ an intelligent person is always eager to take in more truth, fools feed on fast –food Fads and fancies “(msg)”.
Also a wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash “(nlt) and as Prov 18:4 implies “ follow wisdom and we will live on a fruitful oasis, follow folly and our home will be an acid desert “( msg)
Where do we find fancies, trash, folly and weeds? Every TV set, video channel, movie theatre, films and all that internet can provide are agents of a harvest of folly and they clutter the heart and make Christians married to flesh.
When we spend more time consuming entertainment than the word of God and being in His presence, when we enjoy these earthly delights more than fellowship with our heavenly Father our hearts must grow more and more thorny. When we prioritize the world more than God we cannot bear much fruit that abide.
Does God not want us to enjoy life. He does but it is our choice to watch what the world provides and what the kingdom provides. What is unfortunate is loving the world more than God.
According to Pastor, Simeon, an experienced apostolic minister learning from Job 1:1-3, the man job's priority was in this order (i) God (ii) family (iii) Business with this priority God set him on high and the devil couldn’t overcome him. A man with a cluttered heart would have failed and lost his destiny.
A distracted and a heart full of weeds, fallow, rut, thorns cannot bear much fruit and remain a hundred fold company like Cyrus (Isa 45:3) God said “ I will lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables – confirmations that it is in fact God, the God of Israel who calls you by your name” (msg) Cyrus couldn’t bear this kind of fruit if he received this prophecy with a heart full of thorns. With all the distractions we face we cannot prioritize God and bear fruit a hundred- fold if we yield to them. When we know God we cannot prioritize the world or anything else.
Is God your priority or the digital world? But let us understand that Christ must indwell us and function in us and through us for us to really know God and be able to bear much fruit. Can you balance the need for entertainment and your hunger for God and His word?
God indeed warns us about worrying. He says in (Matt 6:25) “Do not worry about your life, about what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on"(nkjv) and in (Matt 6:35) “…do not worry about tomorrow…” (nkjv) He knows what worry does to our body.
He knew what worries do to our hearts in our relationship with Him and the seed of His word in our heart by cluttering it and destroying its fruitfulness.