Genesis 46-48 Matthew 13:1-30

“And what is the seed that fell among the thorny weeds? That seed is like the person who hears the teaching but lets worries about this life and the temptation of wealth stop that teaching from growing. So the teaching does not produce fruit[a] in that person’s life.” (Matthew 13:22 NCV)

Most of us know about the parable of the soils. Jesus taught about a sower going out to sow seeds. Different things happen to the seeds based on the soil they landed in. Think about that: the sower is the same for all of those seeds. The seeds are all similar in the important areas. The difference is in the soil where they land. One area of soil is where thorny weeds grow. Weeds grow there because the general growing conditions are pretty good. And so, the seed, God’s word, begins growing. The problem is that the weeds, described by Jesus as the cares and concerns of this world, choke out the message of the Kingdom of God. Cares and concerns can be daily needs, which Jesus addressed in the Sermon on the Mount. In this case, I think Jesus is focusing on what many would call the good things of this world. Our desires for things, our hopes to keep up with our neighbors, even the concentration on building a church can choke growth in God’s word in the life of a Christian.

More Christians are waylaid by their desires to fit in with this world than anything else – at least based on my observation.  It may take the form of “stuffitis” because we want to have the same stuff as everyone else: after all, you can pull out a plastic card and buy anything you want while only making minimum payments, and when you reach your limit on that card, you can get another one. We want to fit in by doing the things that everyone else does, even if it takes us away from gathering together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s easy to get so enamored by the stuff, the glitz, and the glitter of this world that we have no time or energy left to focus on God. Maybe we need to reassess our faith and our priorities to make sure that our commitment to God remains the most important thing in our lives.

Lord, it’s so easy to get distracted by the weeds of life. Give me the grace to keep my focus on You at all times.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.