Devotion 9/26, Turn your eyes upon Jesus
[Jesus continued explaining his parable of the soils, saying,] “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.”
Matthew 13:22
The thorn infested ground represents people who hear the Word of God in a superficial way. They seem outwardly to be genuine Christians, but in a matter of time that interest is choked out by the cares of this world and the great desire for riches. There is no “fruit” for God in their lives. The temporal issues of this world and the greed for money, power, or possessions has become their God.
So many people in life hear the gospel, even claim that they believe in Christ and desire to live for Him, and then as time goes by they care less and less about Jesus and eternal matters and start focusing on the things of this world. Their thoughts, time, and actions are not on Christ!
Matthew 7:21
(Jesus said) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”
As the Holy Spirit takes up residence in a persons heart at salvation, desires and focuses change to that of Christ and doing His will in our lives. Yes, we will still temporarily get caught up in this world and sin at times, but at some point we come back to our true Lord and Savior and purpose to live for Him alone.
The worries of this life can stifle our faith. Eventually, the fruitfulness of the Gospel is choked out, and we lose our spiritual vitality. Our most valuable riches are found in Jesus, not in stuff that decays or can be stolen from us. If he is our priceless treasure, so his Kingdom must be our highest priority, then we can handle the other things that come our way (Matthew 6:33).
Lord help us to keep our spiritual eyes on Christ and His will for us and to be aware of the devil and his schemes to get our focus off of Jesus and onto this evil world in which we live. 1 John 4:4
…..the One who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Lord I pray we turn our eyes to you today and our life is a reflection of you to all that are in our path. Amen.
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