Thorns: Changing Your Soil Part 3

Seeds among the Thorns

²² 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 NIV) 

• Interesting. Thorny plants are the hardest things to weed; there’s real pain involved.
• God won’t do our weeding for us, but He is actively involved in pointing out where the weeds are, and how to go about getting rid of them.
• Often we don’t know a weed is growing in our heart, until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes.
• These people receive the truth of the gospel.
• The godly seed germinates and they become Christians.
• Fruit often is produced, but it’s not as great as it could be.
• These believers remain faithful, and go to church regularly.
• But their allegiance is divided between the Lord and other things.

About Thorns

Plants grow thorns to stop creatures from munching on them. The protection is so good, small animals will often shelter under thorny bushes. But these plants cause humans problems too. My mother had beautiful rose bushes outside our back door. But those rose thorns were fierce. The few times we cut any roses, or pruned the bushes, we did so very carefully. There wasn’t another plant in Mom’s garden which was treated with such respect. Walking in the woods we sometimes got our clothes badly snagged by a prickly bush. Need to clear the land of thorny plants? What a horrible chore.

The worst thing about weeds? They keep coming back.

A Personal Confession

My heart is no longer the hard packed soil, which the gospel seed couldn’t penetrate. Caring Christians changed my path soil by persistently praying God would save me. Eventually He did.

I skipped the rocky soil. My spiritual roots have grown deep.

But I still have a discouraging problem with weeds.

First the Good News

Looking back over my Christian life, there are some thorny plants that have been eradicated.

Here’s a list of weeds which no longer live in the soil of my heart.

• Elevating certain people and idolizing them. This thorny bush got pulled up very painfully.
• Self-pity? This unwanted plant is ruthlessly plucked up, whenever it tries to take root.
• When pride crops up, it’s treated the same way. Both these undesirable thorny plants once ran rampant in the garden of my heart.
• Hungering for fame and being a spotlight-grabber? This weed withered and died when God healed my relationship with Himself.
• In my 20s I was the energizer bunny of arguing. I just kept going and going and going until the other person quit. I never changed their mind. But I verbally battered them into silence. One night in tears, I cried out to God saying “Lord, I can’t change this.” A year or two later I was living in a household with a seven-year-old who could argue longer than I could. Today I’m totally free of this particularly noxious weed.

Making Progress

• I’ve had a fear of what it will cost me to obey the Lord in different areas. But I go against my fears more often now.
• Secondly I have a fear of what people will think. I’m hopeful of destroying this thorny weed in my heart. I’m learning to speak up and disagree respectfully with good friends who hold opposite opinions. I’m also seeking to listen and ask questions..

My Most Stubborn Weed

If I had been born in a primitive culture, I would have been the tribal storyteller. My love of science fiction, fantasy and well-written mysteries is part of my God-given DNA. I can even accurately tell people the plotline of movies I’ve never seen. Because I remember reading a recap of the plot.

But anything good taken to excess is bad. I’ve stayed up late at night watching bad YouTube videos. Or getting sucked into a book or television show, instead of spending time with Jesus. Then there’s the cell phone.

The one thing I’ve never done is binge-watch a TV show, for obvious reasons.

Early in my Christian life, the Lord challenged me to go on a permanent fiction fast. But it’ was the only way I knew to relieve stress. The Holy Spirit was trying to set me free from a thorny problem, but I didn’t continue fasting long enough. So today, I’m still frequently hooked by these particular thorns.

My Spiritual Point

I’ve been discouraged by my failures. But today, I realized just how much successful weeding has occurred. I still have weeds but there’s a lot of good soil too.

The remaining weeds get more of my attention, because of the thorns.