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. (Mark 4:19 NIV)
This week as I travel, I'm reading from a book called "Renew Mr Heart" Classic Insights from John Wesley and paused to reflect on this verse, the subject of a recent sermon by Mike Sigler. I had always had two views regarding the thorns in our lives. The first is the obvious things in our lives that compete with God for our time, money, and thoughts - our priorities. These may be material things as highlighted in the verse, or it could be our ego, vanity, social status, our hobbies, or even our jobs or career "Success." The other thing, though, can be relationships. To me, there are only two kinds of relationships in this world: people in our lives that encourage our growth in Christ or those that compete for that growth or worse, discourage it.
I've been blessed way beyond my deservedness by numerous Christian friends who collectively encourage my continued growth in Christ. The vast majority of them are through church, hence the health of our church is of constant concern to me and subject of routine prayer. I also am greatly blessed to be a part of the Emmaus and Chrysalis community in our district and have many close friends there as well.
How about you? Do your closest friends encourage your spiritual maturation or do they drag you down into their sinful ways? How about you? Are you encouraging your friends to grow in Christ? Do you hold the same behavioral standards on Friday night as you do on Sunday morning? Make a friend, be a friend and lead that friend to Christ, but don't let them drag you away from a growing relationship with Christ. Be picky with regards to your closest friends - it's a matter of eternal life and death!
No comments:
Post a Comment