Dealing with Your Cares
16th JANUARY 2022
“The seed sown among weeds represents the person who receives the message, but all of life’s busy distractions, his divided heart, and his ambition for wealth result in suffocating the kingdom message and prevent him from bearing spiritual fruit. [Matthew 13:22 TPT].
“The parable of the sower,” as it is commonly referred to, is well known within our Christian circles. Jesus in communicating the power of the Word of God in a person’s life made use of this parable. He did so to relate the role the heart plays in the efficacy of God’s word in a person’s life. Here, the seed is the word of God, and the thorny ground refers to a person who hears the word alright but allows the “cares” of this world to choke the word, rendering him unfruitful.
The word of God comes to us to bear fruit; we do this by living out the Word. As we practise the Word of God, we become more and more like Jesus. Jesus carefully chose the word “cares” to represent the natural wants of life — like clothing, food, companionship, security — which we worry about.
There is nothing wrong with working with your hands, so you can take care of yourself and those in your circle of influence. That notwithstanding, God does not expect us to give so much attention to such needs to the extent that they incapacitate us.
The “thorns” here refer to those illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun. This can prevent a person from living up to his or her potential in the Word of God. For example, though we may read about the benefit of prayer, we may get too occupied with the affairs of life that we do not even make time to pray. As a matter of fact, not having time for things that nourish our spirit-man may become the order of our day, if we do not see it as a scheme of the enemy.
The enemy’s aim is to prevent us from having intimacy with the LORD through His word.
We must make a conscious effort not to allow the thorns to choke the Word of God out of our lives. These cares or worries can easily make us so anxious that we do not experience God’s gift of joy and peace.
Heavenly Father, I am anxious about nothing, in all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, I will make my requests known to You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Further Reading: Matthew 6:33–34, Philippians 4:6–8
Prophetic Declaration: Psalm 91
