Road Blocks to Devotion

Read Mark 4:1-20 NLT

In the above scripture Jesus talks about the different soil conditions. There are four. The first tree lead to abandonment of the Word and a life in Christ and the fourth to a life of devotion that produces a harvest 30, 60 and 100 times more. They are stony ground where the birds eat it up (we know from Jesus' description that the birds are Satan stealing the word), shallow ground where you have no depth, so temptation and persecution kill the world and thorny ground, the cares of this world choke out. These are road blocks to devotion. Here are the three road blocks to devotion broken down: for those into grammar remember the target audience.

1. The word don't go deep - This is stony ground. It's the person who comes to church, sits in the chair and hears the message, but doesn't LISTEN to it. Their heart is hard or stony and because of this the word cannot go deep enough to grow in their life. It sits on top of their heart where it's easy for Satan to take it away. This person needs to listen to the word at church and when they read it, let it sink deep into there heart.
2. They don't go deep - This person is the shallow ground. On the surface they look like they have it all together. They know how to go through the motions at church, small group, camp, etc... You'd look at this person and think they were a strong devoted Christ follower, but they are only surface. They have no depth. They have a corporate devotion (at church devotion), but no private devotion. They read their bible once and awhile, pray once and awhile. This person is in danger when temptation or suffering or problems come because the little devotion they have will get scorched by the heat of life and burn away. This person needs to get a personal devotion life that will create depth. Reading the Word, praying, showing up every week for service and for special worship and prayer. This will give them depth!
3. The weeds go deep - Finally the thorny ground. This is the most dangerous of them all. These types of people are devoted. The word goes deep and they go deep, but there are weeds in their life that go deep. There is a little bitty thing off to the side of their life that they let grow next to the devotion life. It could be the music they listen to, TV they watch, their friends, or boyfriend/girlfriend. There is something(s) in their life that is growing that will choke the word of God. Something that is growing that will distract them and cause them to take their eyes off of God and onto it. It will cause the one who was devoted to fall because it choked the word out of their life. The bible calls it the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, worries of this life and desire for other things. Pretty soon their desire for God (devotion) is choked out by the desire for music, TV, boyfriend, girlfriend, job, car, money and on and on and on. This person has got to let God examine their life and they must pluck out the little bitty thing(s) before they become weeds that take over their whole garden of devotion.

There are road blocks to devotion, but breaking through them and living devoted will bring you 30, 60 and 100 times more. More joy, life, anointing, salivations of those around you, healing, grace, faith and so much more. Live devoted!