thorns

Learning the parable of the sower as a child, I always knew that I would be the good person, the fruitful soil. It was other people who did the wrong things and ended up as the bad ground.

But these days I find myself as thorny ground. How often I start the day with God, but then as it were, say good-bye after the "amen" and live my day without consciousness of His presence. The "cares and pleasures of life" (Lk.8:14) fill my thoughts, crowding out the good fruit, and I end the day wondering when I will ever learn to walk with God.

Somehow it is easier to serve God in the dark - under pressure - than it is when life is easy. When you are thirsty, you find that the broken cisterns of the world hold no water, and that only the Fountain of Life satisfies. You can have an easy life, or you can have close fellowship with God - but not both. No wonder that some persecuted Christians say, "Don't pray that our persecution will be removed, but rather that we would stand fast for God." They have learned that ease is the enemy of fruitfulness.

Why? because our hearts are so fickle by nature, so corrupt in Adam, that we love ourselves supremely when given the chance. We choose what most pleases the flesh. We have not yet learned that to love God supremely is the path of greatest joy and deepest satisfaction, though it may be the way most distasteful to our flesh. God has to put hardship in our lives to show us that our idols do not satisfy and to turn us back to Himself.