Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Yanking the Thorns

(?)

WHAT DO THORNS REPRESENT IN SCRIPTURE? Prickly issues that steal our joy, confidence, and progress in our faith. Jesus' own words describe the menace of thorns to our spiritual vitality.

The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.

MARK 4:18–19

Thorns are lethal to our spiritual growth.

Period. No ifs, ands, or buts. The thorns are dictators. They know nothing of peaceful coexistence with the life of freedom and victory. Their long, sharp points keep annoying us. They play no favorites. They paint a picture in 3-D: disturbance, deception, discontentment. They demand first place as they siphon every ounce of your interest in spiritual things and reduce you to an ineffective and unproductive loser.

Are you a worrier? Has the greenback made you greedy? Is it next to impossible to be satisfied with your present situation? If so, this is not new to you—you've been stuck by those thorns since your soil first received God's seed . . . and if the truth were known, you inwardly enjoy their presence. It's risky to abandon your entire life to God by faith. You'd rather worry . . . and possess . . . and complain than rest and release and rejoice. The thorns inject a powerful anesthesia.

Why do so many Christians live among thorns? Because we have a quiet, respectable, secret love for them. I know . . . I've got the ugly scars to prove it. Each one is a mute reminder of the years I stood trapped in the thicket. Periodically I still must yank a few.

I've never heard of such, but I'd like to proclaim today as our personal thorn-pulling day. We may bleed and it may hurt . . . but, oh, the beauty of a thornless day. How sweet it is!