Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

Matthew 13:7

In one short sentence Jesus describes many of us – we receive the blessed seed with joy and great thanksgiving but find that if we are to allow the seed to penetrate our lives and lodge there as a blessed gift of God, we must do battle with the thorns that resist Jesus with a vengeance, thorns that are in us.

The thorns, those things that we hold dear but which militate against the Spirit of the Lord will not allow the seeds to produce fruit.  The precious seeds may sprout and put down some roots but the growth that is already there, and growing, does not give the new seed with its new life a chance to survive.  So it simply chokes out the seed and that is that.  It is as though the seed never fell in it at all.

In my career I have seen this as one of the major challenges we all face.  One of my close friends in Tanzania received the seed and it took hold, as we say.  But he felt that, according to the customs of his people, he should have a male heir that seemed unlikely with his wife so he added a wife the way the culture did it.  The good seed in him, the Gospel of Christ, hit a wall.  He got his second wife and lost his first blessing.

This resembles another believer who found that he could make money if he relaxed his moral standards a bit.  It was not long before he had money but no credibility.

This is not at all strange.  People who have received the living seed struggle to allow that seed to produce gracious fruit in life because some desire, or some practices, stand in the way.  Much too often, the good seed is overcome!  This is a huge challenge for the people of God.  For all of us.