Protect Your Faith

Mark 4:18-19 “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

Faith is precious to God. Someone who will simply take Him at His Word.

How can we, as His creation, offer Him something that pleases Him when He created the heavens and the earth? Yet, we can please Him with our faith. (Hebrews 11:6)

Satan knows how powerful faith is; he understands that faith in God’s Word is the answer to everything he tries to throw at us. His aim is therefore to steal the Word of God because he knows that if he can steal God’s Word, he can hinder us from living the fruitful life God has called us to live. Therefore, we must protect our faith!

In the parable of the Sower, Jesus reveals the strategies the enemy uses to try to steal our faith. He will first attempt to steal God’s Word from our hearts with doubts and lies that challenge the truth of God’s Word. If that doesn’t work, he will then try to bring circumstances that oppose God’s Word; if that still doesn’t work, his next attempt is to choke the Word with distractions, worries, fears, and deceitful desires.

But satan is a defeated foe. He can try all he wants to stop God’s Word from producing in our lives, but the truth is, we can decide what kind of soil we are! He can’t stop the Word of God from producing in a life of one who refuses to let go of God’s Word and remains steady.

God wants all of His children to live a blessed and victorious life. He never fails to stop sowing His Word, giving everyone the opportunity to hear. It's our job to guard our hearts from the attempts of the enemy to steal the Word. We have the authority and responsibility to guard our hearts from the distractions, fears, and worries of this life. Notice how Jesus says in the verse above that these thorns “enter in”.

Just because the temptation to fear and worry comes our way doesn’t mean that we have to let them in our hearts. We have a choice to either resist them or let them in.

We can resist them by speaking the Word of God over our lives and guarding our hearts from the worries and fears by casting our cares onto the Lord.

Most people believe that worry and fear are just a normal response to life’s problems, but according to Jesus, worries and fears are thorns that will actually choke the Word of God and hinder us from producing the fruit of His Word. That may sound foreign to most people, but we can see throughout Scripture how often He says to “fear not.” “Don’t be afraid.” “My peace I leave with you.” “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Those Scriptures aren’t just greetings or sayings; they are commands from our Father because He doesn’t want His children living a life of fear. Instead, He tells us to cast all of our cares upon Him because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7)

We can see an example of this in the story of Jairus, when he hears the worst news a parent could hear: “Your daughter is dead.”

Just like any human being, thoughts and feelings of fear, panic, and sorrow bombarded him. But Jesus was right there and said to Jairus, “Fear not, only believe.”

Jesus didn’t say that to help calm him down; He said it as a command because if Jairus would give in to the fear and let it enter his heart, it would hinder Jesus from working in this situation. Fear and worry choke the Word. But praise God, Jairus resisted the fear and chose to believe that Jesus was able to raise his daughter from the dead. And that is exactly what happened!

You and I don’t have to let the worries and cares of this world choke the Word of God; we can protect our faith and guard our hearts by choosing to resist the devil and speak God’s Word only, and consider God’s Word only, regardless of what it looks like in the natural.  

Ask God for His help! He knows exactly how to strengthen you from the inside and give you the right words to resist the devil and his attempts to steal the Word.

We have His peace in every situation! Hallelujah!

Remember, we love you, and we are praying for you!

Blessings,

Chloe