Mark 4:19 - “but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Do you remember the old Sesame Street song about identifying differences? The song says “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn’t belong.” The characters on the show would have 4 objects that look very similar, and the object of the game was to identify the one item that looks like the others, but is slightly different.
Sometimes it was very easy to quickly identify the differences, but sometimes, you’d have to really study the objects to see the difference in one of them. When it comes to our scripture for today, I’ve tried to apply the “one of these things is different” approach every time. I undoubtedly know that deceitfulness of wealth and desiring things of the world can come in and choke the Word of God. But worry… worry is natural and clearly different from the other things listed.
But Jesus didn’t distinguish worry from deceitfulness and the desiring of things. He deemed worry just as dangerous, just harmful as the other two. As we tend to think that worry is a natural part of being human, Jesus is showing us that this simple thing can come in and choke the Word of God, keeping it from being fruitful in our lives.
What are you worried about today? When it comes to worry, we are usually not short on reasons we should be. Life seems to always deliver trials and troubles to keep us worried. We have to learn that the only thing that worry does is rob us of peace in Christ Jesus. It snatches away the sweet fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Even more, worry robs us of complete trust in our almighty God. The amplified version says that worry creeps in and chokes the Word. This illustrates the sneaky tactic of the enemy to use something that seems so small to choke all the promises of God from our hearts and from our lives. Don’t allow the enemy to rob of you that.
I know that life can get rough sometimes. Things happen that certainly impact our relationships, finances, homes, health, churches, schools… and these things cause us to worry. God knew this, which is why he urges us to cast our cares on Him. Most often, there’s not much we can do anyway, besides worry ourselves sick and make poor decisions under the influence of worry. Never approach worry as though it is different from deceitfulness and desire, or anything else that robs us of the fruits of the Spirit. Recognize worry’s evil ploy and how it can choke the Word of God from your heart. Lean fully on God the Father almighty. He has all power in his hand and you are His child, whom He loves. He wants to carry the weight of your burdens and give you peace in your heart, allowing His Word to be fruitful and powerful in your life. Whatever worry has you bound, bind it right now in mighty name of Jesus and allow God to loose the powerful fruit of His Word in your life.
Heavenly Father I thank you for being mighty enough to take on all my burdens. God, sometimes I get so caught up in worry that it causes me not to trust you and the promises of your Word becomes fruitless in my life. Help me to learn to trust you, in all things, in all ways, no matter what I am facing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
By: Min. April Carter
