But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared
Matthew 13:25
Sometime in 2018, I travelled to Akure in Ondo state, Nigeria. My elder brother’s wife had lost his mother-in-law and we all travelled down for the burial. I drove my entire family down. After the burial ceremony, as we got ready to leave, my brother noticed a gallon which he believed to be the leftover fuel used for the generator and asked if anyone was interested. I quickly indicated my interest and it was given to me to fill my car with.
About thirty minutes after the fueling, it was time to leave. I started my car like every other person and left, two minutes later the car stopped! We tried every trick possible without any success and later invited professionals who tried their best to no avail. We had to push the car back to Akure and ended up sleeping there in order for the professionals to continue their diagnosis the next day.
Suddenly, we revisited the fuel added to the car again and just then we realised we had made a major mistake. What we added was water, not fuel. That explains why the car won’t move; it runs on fuel, not water and definitely not a combination of water and fuel. Although I had more fuel than water in the car, it still won’t run; for it to run it must be fuel alone!
The growth of our spiritual life is possible only through the fuel of pure spiritual content. The word of God, the lifestyle of prayer, knowledge acquisition through christian literature and other inspiring and edifying contents. The reason why we go to church, hear powerful messages, fast, and pray hard, yet still struggle with lustful thoughts, is that we have also allowed the enemy to sow the seed of pornographic images appearing in form of social media skits; unhealthy musical contents that do not edify us in anyway.
Notice, the enemy didn’t need to uproot the good seed in order to sow his tares. In fact, he wasn’t even bothered by the fact that the good seed was growing and even bearing seed. He merely needs a foothold to coexist. You might delude yourself into thinking you are growing because you are still seeing some manifestations of the spirit but that is simply the deceitfulness of fruits. The reality is that the devil is making you comfortable with a good life, at the expense of the best life you could have in God. The spark you think you have now is nothing compared to what you could have had. Don’t settle for the deceit of the devil, a mixed life will never go far.
Don’t settle for the devil’s deception. A life tainted by anything less than pure devotion will never reach its full potential.
PRAYER
Dear Lord, your word encouraged me to not be lukewarm, but to be fervent. Please help me to focus on my spiritual engagement.
