Matthew 13:22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
Dear friends, who have to teach the young, you have, in their case, less danger in this respect. They have not yet come to the time when the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches will choke the word. You have some advantage over us, though even the little things of a child’s play may make nettles and thorns. Things which we could not consider to be cares that seem too trivial - are cares to them. It may be that our heavenly Father thinks of our cares very much as we think of our children’s cares, and as we should smile to see them distrustful, so it may be that he smiles and grieves whenever he finds us so, for, mark you, even among God’s own people, God’s Word cannot grow in our hearts at the rate it should, for we have the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches. We must cry to be lifted above these - delivered from the evil influences of the world in which we dwell - or else our good Lord and Master will waste many a handful of good seed upon us, though, I trust, that yet out of us he will get some harvest.
Matthew 13:22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
Dear friends, who have to teach the young, you have, in their case, less danger in this respect. They have not yet come to the time when the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches will choke the word. You have some advantage over us, though even the little things of a child’s play may make nettles and thorns. Things which we could not consider to be cares that seem too trivial - are cares to them. It may be that our heavenly Father thinks of our cares very much as we think of our children’s cares, and as we should smile to see them distrustful, so it may be that he smiles and grieves whenever he finds us so, for, mark you, even among God’s own people, God’s Word cannot grow in our hearts at the rate it should, for we have the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches. We must cry to be lifted above these - delivered from the evil influences of the world in which we dwell - or else our good Lord and Master will waste many a handful of good seed upon us, though, I trust, that yet out of us he will get some harvest.