You know that yielding to all the distractions won't get you where you want to go.
"The seed that fell among the thorny weeds is like those who hear God's teaching, but they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life keep them from growing and producing good fruit." (Luke 8:14)
God wants to speak to you. But first, you must eliminate the distractions that constantly take you away... so that you can hear from him. I’d say that “offline,” off gaming, off social media, off Japanese anime (I mean the fantasy escapism of it), off TV, off textin' is for us believers.. the new luxury so to speak. Not that these things are evil in and of themselves—I use some of these things as tools. But when it means time with the Lord is the top priority, that's what it should be cuz that where the blessing is. Why? Because He (knowing Him intimately) is the Biggest blessing of all.
Personally, I’m not a gamer and am not here to judge any, but I do like friendship building, fishin’ for souls, reaping em into God’s plan (eternal Kingdom), seed-planting with the truth in love if ya will, crowd-sourcing and listening. I even encourage other people to do this stuff both off and on-line, in season and out with the Word. It doesn’t return void.
God tells us to do this stuff: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3
You and I certainly can't hear God when our minds are all crowded up with gobs of worries, with our own dominating plans, and our own activities ..independent from the Holy Spirit. You can't hear from God when your mind is filled up to the brim with lame TV, its submerging pop culture influence, bad news ..instead of Good News.. from the Internet, or even from your cell phone’s constant audio input minus a break. For many of us, there's now too much noise flyin' at us.. to hear from God clearly, and many of us are even creating noise for others. I’ve sadly done that. Admit it. Now, I try to uplift and challenge people’s minds and don't seek to do that, but I too think I am guilty of it. Sorry.
Listen, your quiet-time meetin' alone with God each day is the most important meeting of the entire day—it’s mine as well. Ask yourself.. have I been regularly sacrificing my alone-time with the Lord in order to run off to the web.. and then get caught in a web.. or am about to get caught? Those who neglect God's Word tend to become indebted to it.
The Bible says, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Hebrews 2:1-3
The Bible says, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Hebrews 2:1-3
Go tell em about how wonderful Jesus is, what He did, what He said. Share His Gospel. Fish4souls.org
Please don’t follow the crowd in the direction that crowds normally goes in, but let the crowd follow you in a better direction--the best. Grasp early ..instead of too late.. what direction I'm talking about.
This is the soil with weeds. In Luke 8:7 Jesus says, "Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it". Notice that the seed does get to sprout and actually starts growing. But after a while the weeds choke it, so it never bears fruit.
In verse 14 Jesus explains the meaning: "The seed that fell among the thorny weeds is like those who hear God's teaching, but they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life keep them from growing and producing good fruit".
One of the biggest distractions that keeps us from hearing from God is empty-busyness. A lot of people tend to confuse "activity" with "productivity." But these are not the same at all. You can be always on the go but still going around in circles. If you're always busy but not really making any progress, then there won't be any fruit in your life.
There are three very common weeds that tend to choke God out of your life.. if you let em.
The first is worry. The word "worry" really means "pulled in different directions." You forget God because you're filled with anxiety and stretched to the limit.
The second is riches. Money isn't evil per se, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Do you lust for more money? Hey, you can become so uber-busy chasing and making money that you forget God. You put in a full day's work, come home exhausted, and then get up the next morning and do it again. You're so busy making a living that you're not making a life with God.
The third is pleasure. What's wrong with pleasure? Nothing at all--except when you're so busy pursuing fun that you forget God.. man, that's just sin and guess what.. sin produces death. God says, The wages of sin is death. There are a lot of pleasures that Christians enjoy that ain't wrong at all. Check the Bible.
But there are lots of different kinds of weeds. A weed is anything you allow to take first place in your life instead of God. He deserves it. "Weed" and a weed like I'm takin' about does not. A weed is anything you allow to choke God out of your schedule.
I love to garden in my yard, so I'm regularly planting good plants while I pull out ugly weeds. How much effort does it take to grow weeds? None. Weeds to me are a sign of neglect. Whenever you neglect time with God and your small group Bible study or prayer group, guess what? Weeds are going to grow in your life. It ain't a positive grow, it's a grow you don't want. It may not be these three weeds I talked about, but there will be some. They're going to grow up and s t r a n g l e the life out.. choke the spiritual life out of you. Don't let em! Sow to the Spirit and not to the fleshly nature. Deny yourself to obey God. Don't feed lust, starve it to death.
God is trying to make contact with you cuz He loves you and wants to use you. Is He getting a busy signal when He calls? You've got to be proactive and eliminate those weeds in your life so that God can break through to speak to you and produce fruit in your life. Perhaps fast and pray together to hear Him better. Your doc can help ya with this.
So how does this weed-talk describe your life? Does it at all to a degree? Got some weeds that are trying to encroach into the beautiful garden of your life Christian.. to take over and steal your joy and fruitfulness? Have you never yet been reborn spiritually? You can be now! It's a good question.. Do you personally know the Chief Gardener? He, (God) cares about you and He has called you to Himself through His Son, Jesus. So, I pray that your day will go excellent all the way as you call out to Him and put Him first ahead of all other distractions.
