Mark 4:19: “The cares and anxieties of the world, and the distractions of this age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things CREEP in and choke and suffocate the Word, and It becomes fruitless.”

The distractions of this age brought on us by cares and anxieties have a distinct way of operating when they come around us. They creep in. They are subtle and have a way of delighting us. The Word speaks of sin as being pleasurable for a short time, but leads to death. The pleasure is aimed at the body and its senses, but the Word tells us that they are deceitful; that they’re false. And the havoc they wind up releasing on you has been foretold: they’ll rob you of your crop that the Word promises is yours when you use your faith.

Now God has already promised you all sorts of fantastic stuff. He said you’ll be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. You’ll prosper in all that you set your hands to, and that you are blessed with the blessing of Abraham! But He has a system in place for you and I and ANY ONE ELSE who cares to access it. Anything the world has to offer, no matter how good it looks to your eye, cannot compare to the glorious things that God has prepared for us who love Him.

Now when someone buys into the cares and anxieties of the world, they will become fruitless. That’s a powerful statement the book of Mark has made. That word “fruitless” means to be completely without, and absolutely void. In other words, it’s not just going to take a little. It will rob you of all your using your faith for. When you dabble in the world, Jesus tells us that even what we have will be taken from us. Why? Because we are working to exercise the ways of the world instead of the ways of the Word. Even what we are doing by faith at the time will come to nothing.

I’ve seen this happen to someone before. There was a man who owned his own business that I knew. He loved the Lord and was even a tither and a giver. But he ran his business in a crooked way. He would dodge taxes and cut legal corners. When his business ran into financial trouble, he couldn’t figure out why. “After all,” he said, “I’m a tither! Why is this happening to me?” The care of paying taxes and other such things creeped in and choked out what he was doing by faith: tithing and giving. His own actions choked out God from being able to act on his behalf through his tithing and giving. God warns us about these things for a reason. He can supply money enough for you and your family to live on AND to pay the taxes at the same time, if you’ll just believe Him for it and act honestly and with integrity! He’ll honor that! I know!

Now right on the other hand we have worries and fears. These have no pleasure value to them like a care or anxiety of the world do. They don’t creep in. No, they tend to carry with them a certain shock value. And if we do not know how to de-value them when they are offered, we’ll buy into them.

But the Word tells us to “take no care,” and to “be anxious for nothing.” We can’t go around saying, “Oh man, what am I going to do? I can barely afford rent, let alone this and that!” You’re going to have to use your faith. You’re going to have to refuse fear! You’re going to have to go to your Bible and look to Mark 11:22-24 and build your faith on them (notice I didn’t say build your feelings up until you feel better about the situation). Once you’ve done that, confess God’s Word with your mouth boldly. Confess, “I have all my needs met, and they are met by God. They come from HIS riches and glory! I refuse to worry! I refuse to fear! And I refuse to try to figure things out with my head! I’m going to trust what Your Word has said concerning this whole matter! And that’s all you’re going to get out of me, or out of my mouth, in Jesus name!”

Well, now you can be at ease! For all of the angels of heaven are working on your behalf right now making what you just said come to pass! You just beat the creep!!