I Would Go Through Them

¹“Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.” (Isaiah 27:4). Pretty much all of us have at least some part of our soul that longs to be closer to our Heavenly Father and be obedient to His commandments so that we can strengthen our bond with Him. But many of us struggle to live up to that desire. For some of us, we are like the seed that is planted in the Parable of the Sower that tries to grow but gets choked out by thorns and weeds which represent the cares and concerns of this world. Keeping our hearts free from thorns is hard work. Every time we go out and weed our little garden, the thorns seem to spring up as soon as our backs are turned. When God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, He warned them, and by extension, warned all of us, that thorns and thistles would be a constant part of their lives and ours. Some of us may even feel like Paul, that no matter how hard we tug and pull, that stubborn thorn in our flesh just won't budge. It is bad enough that, try as we might, we can't seem to ever get rid of the thorns and the cares of the world, but it is much worse if we come to believe that somehow these thorns are separating us from our Savior. Jesus is not intimidated by thorns. In fact, He is so unafraid of them that He wears a crown of them on His head. If we've got thorns in our lives, even the really stubborn thorns of the flesh that we can't get rid of no matter how hard we pray, Jesus will go right through them to get to us. And what's more, He'll help us burn them all up so that we never have to deal with them again. And if new thorns happen to spring up, Jesus will go right through and help us burn those as well. All of us deal with doubts and fears and addictions and depression and trust issues and anger issues and a million other kinds of thorns. But we should never think for a second that any of that can separate us from the love of our Savior. He will go through miles and miles of thorns and briers to get to us and He will consider us well worth the effort. Let us keep striving to grow and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit no matter how many thorns we have to deal with. Jesus will help us go through them all.