Tuesday 30 Jul 2013

Tuesday Reading: Luke 8:4-8

Key Verse: Luke 8:7
7  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

Devotion:
I would like to focus on one thing from the parable of the sower today and that is that fact that the thorns choked the real produce! I come from Zimbabwe where the thorn trees are quite something with thorns that are huge and resilient to almost everything. The thought of being pricked by one of those brings back memories best forgotten and hence why we used to avoid those thorn bushes and trees unless absolutely necessary!

So why then do we allow all manner of strange things into our own lives instead of focusing on the things of God? Well we do live in this world and this world is a very diverse place; we don’t always get to choose the environment in which we work and play. But if we find ourselves having to be in an environment that could be hazardous to our health, then we should be taking the appropriate precautions. Whilst we may think that some precautions are far beyond what we actually need to take, it will only be after we have been saved from peril that we realise that they are actually good to take!

Our spiritual lives are even more precious than our physical lives because it is our soul that will continue living after we physically die. It is that spiritual life that needs the care and attention so that it is not choked and does not die before it’s time. God continues to sow the seeds and continues to make sure that the appropriate environment is available to us – we choose the environment that we wish to be in and in doing so we are choosing the schooling for our souls.

If we choose to live a spiritual life without God then we can expect nothing else than to have an eternal life without Him – something that we would never knowingly choose if we could look forward and back in time. We need to choose to live with our God in a place where He can actively care for us and not in a place where He has to continually fight for our very survival. We need to choose life, but to do that we need to choose God’s ways fist of all.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like thorns?

Are you allowing God easy access?