Have you ever heard your career-driven self saying, “This is too much?” But as soon as you think it, you sense that God is the One not letting you leave. What is this God/mammon pressure all about? In a nutshell, spiritual reprioritization. Your own soul needs your immediate attention.
Mark 4:19, AMPC says:
“Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the 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” (emphasis, author’s).
A few notes here…
“Other things” is non-descript because it is anything, or anyone, that takes precedence over the Word of God (Christ Jesus is the WORD made flesh; see John 1:14).[1]
The term riches is preceded by “deceitfulness”, and “glamour” or prestige is preceded by the word false. The takeaway? Money may lie and positions may not be real.[2] If you are rightly focused on God, none of it matters, only doing the will of God with it does.
“Choking Christ out of you” is the penalty of professional pride. You get paid to do it.
“The verb "sumpnigó" is used in the New Testament to describe the act of choking or suffocating. It is often used metaphorically to describe how external pressures or distractions can stifle spiritual growth or productivity. The term conveys a sense of being overwhelmed or crowded out by other forces.”[3]
One symptom that Mark 4:19 is playing out in your life is an extraordinarily high level of externally imposed anxiety (worldly pressure). The other is that the enemy of God seems to, oddly, be leaving you alone lately.
When you enter a new existence or a new level,
that experience tries to enter you and redefine you.
However, your identity is, and always will be, in Christ.
Let Christ enter, shape and mold you as He wants,
not as the world, with all its unrealistic demands, wants.
I recently came across something that essentially said this: “If the devil cannot get you to outright sin anymore, he will get you distracted.” And, just as importantly, “The two [sin and distraction] have EXACTLY THE SAME END EFFECT.” They are like two railway cars linked behind the same runaway steam engine headed for hell. Inside the distraction car, there is much busy-ness, much business, many highly-trained people darting about, “caring” and getting paid for it, but not feeling quite right about it.
Note that Mark 4:19 lists “distraction” right along with “cares”—“caring” [for others] with a price tag on it (riches). This is “professional” people pleasing. Paul states in Galatians 1:10 (AMPC): “Now am I trying to win the favor of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).” Also, Jesus turned the tables of the money changers to cleanse and guard God’s house of prayer (see Matthew 21:12-13).
We all want to do a good job. We all want to be well-liked. We all feel pulled to join a cause or a camp. This is the way the “world” seems to work. But, if we do not set personal and professional boundaries, we can take this ladder-climbing and social fighting too far, until we find ourselves in a form of 100% taxation of the soul (a form of self-imposed slavery).
Now, before you knee-jerk resign, let’s look at this passage:
“Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour” (1 Peter 5:8-12, AMPC).
Simply come back into balance. Reprioritize your life and your motives. ALL THE TIME. Think soberly and pleasantly about who and WHOSE you are. Whoever the enemy is seeking to devour, the Word of God, should you keep it, will be your guard and choke the enemy out and render him ineffective!
Balance your Christian life back out.
So far we have learned…
Habitual, prolonged distraction is sin.
Even those distractions that are rooted in good intentions
can be manipulated by the enemy of God
via prideful thinking and out-of-balance living.
Think about these words again: prideful thinking and out-of-balance living…
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, KJV).
Jesus says, in Mark 12:24, “Is not this where you wander out of the way and go wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (AMPC).
We may know the Word but not believe God will come through for us in a certain area. We may neglect the Word and forget what it even says about this or that matter. Both are dangerous for the believer. We hear over and over, “spend time in the Word of God,” and we know we should but we have all these other demands… If this has become your “go to” excuse to the Holy Spirit’s inner promptings for attention, you have entered the red zone.
No matter how deceiving the enemy of God is,
Satan is no match for the Word and Power of God.
We need to be in keeping with, and know, both the Word and God’s Power to perform it in our lives!
God wants your time.
He will multiply it, grace it, and give you
surplus energy in exchange.
If you do not fuel up your car you will be stranded on the freeway. But many a CEO has not opened the Bible in a while and a “too big to fail” corporation has failed overnight. Why? Because that leader lacked the skills? Lacked the experience? Lacked the training? Missed a deadline? No. It is because God had to pull the rug out from underneath to get everybody’s ATTENTION back on Him where it belongs. Knowing God, He hinted. He nudged. He pulled on the conscience. He whispered. He sent several preachers and a few semi-seismic volatilities in the stock market. He sent the Word. All neglected. So He acted, FOR THE SAKE OF SOULS.
Think about it… What difference does it matter to Satan if you sin or work yourself to death—either way, he has you heading six-foot underground in a hurry. An ineffective race against time.
Stop.
Turn yourself around.
Look up.
Ask yourself, ask God, if you are living the way that you should.
How are you living your life? Is this what He saved you for? Are you actually alive on the inside each and every day? Is your spirit, your soul, your mind, your body a comfortable, holy place where God and you both dwell? Are you in constant communion with Jesus Christ, Who is LIFE?
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV).
If you feel conflicted, even a little, about these questions, let me ask one more: Do you know the Word and have time for it to enter you (eisporeuomai)? If you don’t, “other things” (loipos) that are not Christ, will. And, according to Mark 4:19, these other things are designed to “creep in” and “choke out” (sumpnigó) the Word of God in you, and the result is that you will bear God no lasting fruit, no lasting results. Your life’s work will be all for naught. Ashes to ashes.
Many people build up a career like a temple to God and on their last day of employment sit down mystified. Retirement. They look back at it and this is the mantra: Did any of that even matter? It’s a blur and a house built on sand. Think of that feeling of emptiness as they open the Bible for the first time in seemingly years...
So, breathe for just a moment, take a time out, and make the concerted effort to base your life back on love and holiness NOW. Rebalance. Reprioritize. Do not compromise your biblical morals to get a paycheck. Think deeply and patiently along eternal lines. Is what you are building solidly placed on the everlasting Rock as your firm foundation? If not, pray and make a God-inspired plan to get back on biblical track with your spiritual life.
Perhaps your striving and manufacturing keeps sliding off the base because something unbiblical needs to be corrected before God will agree to prosper your efforts.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth (3 John 1:2-4, KJV).
Christians are in the business of truth.
“But,” the Christians say, “I am helping people. I am needed.”
That is likely fine, unless and until it takes so much of your time, energy, and thought life, that you do not love God anymore, and you are not taking care of yourself anymore. Soon after, God will need to do another rescue on your behalf. The organization’s needs will change, and your position that has been built to run on autopilot without you, will do so. Immediately when that happens, you will cry out to God.
So to prevent or negate the effects of this, simply put God first. He is your career insurance and life insurance. He is your eternal insurance. The purchase of this brand of insurance is free and simple: put God first in your life. Cry out to God now and reorganize your priorities. Christ died so that you can CHOOSE how to live your life (Deuteronomy 30:19; John 10:10). “Purchase from Me refined gold,” Jesus counsels (Revelation 3:18). This gold never tarnishes or loses its value. You don’t even have to work for it; just receive it.
Thus far, with the help of Mark 4:19 above, we have uncovered this fact:
It is NOT a lesser evil to allow distractions of the age
to choke out the Word of God in you.
This is a same-level sin as any other sin,
with the exact same destructive result.
Though we tend to store our modern-day workaholism on the polar opposite side of our mind from sin, and call it “doing good”, if we are habitually neglecting our own souls and doing this work without God, it cannot be defined as good at all. God alone is good (Mark 10:18). The enemy is crafty, subtle, and unfortunately patient (in a wicked way) with a knack for twisting the good intentions of believers to fit into unnatural systems that have a great deal to do with MONEY. But it is not about money at all. Rather, there is usually a biblical compromise involved. If you have not noticed, money is becoming more volatile and thinly stretched.[4] There is no place to hide.
“Selling your soul” is a commonly heard phrase with regard to the human condition. Selling your soul to money, to professional people pleasing, does not sound too terrible. God will forgive me. What choice do I have? If you do not work you do not eat…
Quite a complex problem we have here for: “Man cannot serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). However, God never says within the context of “If you do not work, you do not eat,” to go ahead and put Him last place, to go ahead and consider Him second best and an afterthought to more pressing and urgent matters, that He will understand… NEVER.
A spouse despises this treatment,
yet we dismiss God as unimportant all the time.
How do we think this makes Him feel?
In fact, God admits to being a jealous God in the Word, meaning we are to have no other gods before Him and making it clear He wants MORE time with us, not less. We are not on spiritual autopilot here.
So what is God saying about mammon? We should not work? No. He is saying He will give it to us if we keep our affections and attentions on Him. I believe, through a balanced and proper study of Scripture, He is clearly saying: Put ME first, and I will keep all the rest of it for you. If you do not keep Me first, you will lose it time and again until you learn this principle… I am your GOD and your LORD. I WILL provide for you.
This does not mean we will not go through pains and long suffering. We will. It does mean that God is kind, merciful and gracious, but He is also not playing. You and I BELONG to GOD, not the enemy, and not to money or pride. Empty well digging makes for an exhausting life. Persistence in God, however, makes for a rewarding, love-filled life.
You only have the capacity to love people if you have the love of God inside you.
You are only qualified to lead others if God leads you.
Remember where your qualifications, talents,
promotions and ordainments come from:
GOD alone.
If your position bends your biblical morals, have the strength to lovingly and strongly correct it by bringing biblical solutions, or simply walk away from it. You are not for sale any more than Christ is. Your caring is done for free and it is genuine love, not manipulation (Proverbs 23:23; John 8:36).
Know God and His Word, and ask God daily where the moral line is that He wants you to walk. He may be using you to bring godliness and peace to your workplace. He may, and likely is, testing you on the finer arts of compromise and consequence. Whom will you serve this day (see Joshua 24:14-15)? Examine your own heart, soul, mind and spirit. Examine your priorities and how your time is spent. Let God examine it all with His own microscope as you peer into His Word. He will help you.
These reprioritizing words of Jesus were spoken long ago, yet are LIVING WORDS and entirely relevant to the human condition today…
29 Jesus answered, The first and principal one of all commands is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord;
30 And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment.
[Author’s interjection: Note the word “FIRST” used twice so we do not invert it with the second commandment below…]
31 The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
[Author’s interjection: To avoid the sins of distraction and idolatry: Keep the order. God comes FIRST, caring for self and people comes SECOND. We cannot do the second without HIM via the first. When we invert the order, we will fail by His infallible design because He wants us to keep Him as Lord of our lives.]
32 And the scribe said to Him, Excellently and fitly and admirably answered, Teacher! You have said truly that He is One, and there is no other but Him;
33 And to love Him out of and with all the heart and with all the understanding [with the faculty of quick apprehension and intelligence and keenness of discernment] and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mark 12:29-33, AMPC).
Love is the key act of life. It is that simple. God must be all up into the mix of EVERYTHING we do.
Only God calls and places you. My “career advice” is the same as Jesus’ counsel: “keep God first in your life”, or you have no life at all. The length of time or the playing field God uses to teach you this is irrelevant. Love people. You are first and foremost a child of God. He has always taken care of you and He always will, if you keep Him first place in your life.
In a world full of highly trained and much busy Martha’s, be a Mary and let the world’s problems be handled by God (see Luke 10:38-42). Unlearn all the “skills” and “pride” that lend themselves to a false identity, and sit down at the Master’s feet—humble like a child—once again. This is the very definition of success and it builds lasting fruit and a true legacy.
Remember…
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10, AMPC).
Live your life fully and truthfully. Reprioritize and put your Relationship with Christ at the top of your to do list. You will be happy that you did.
Amen.
Beloved,
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health,
even as thy soul prospereth.
(3 John 1:2, KJV)
REFERENCES:
Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
King James Version (KJV), Public domain.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
[1] Extroversion and introversion require a balance and good boundary setting. You cannot neglect one or the other. Remember, Jesus preached to crowds and withdrew in complete isolation to connect with God alone. If we want to be spiritually healthy and useful to God, we have to be both introverted and extroverted. It is not one or the other.
[2] Matthew Henry, in the book, “The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit,” teaches the art of holding all things lightly but God’s hands. In short, be prepped to let all things the world may “offer” go. The only lasting things are given to you directly from God. Henry writes: “Prosperity and adversity have each of them their particular temptation to peevishness and forwardness; the former by making men imperious, the latter by making men impatient. Against the assaults of each…the grace of meekness will stand on guard…and love unfeigned…will be the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. It is the continual happiness of a quiet temper to make the best of that which is” (p. 75; Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene OR). And I respectfully add, …”by looking toward that which will be.” Henry taught the art of dying well, and in so looking fully ahead, inadvertently teaches the art of then living well, because it keeps ever in mind that we are all temporary employees here, regardless of the type of career we find ourselves in. Moreover, all person’s “boss” is only God. Steward finances, steward people, houses families and lands, and only that in humility—all belong to God. Do not buy into falsities that a human being is in charge of anything.
[3] Strong’s Lexicon. 4846. Sumpnigo. Bible Hub. Retrieved March 2, 2025 at https://biblehub.com/greek/4846.htm
Signs of too much worldly pressure can include health issues such as hypertension, tension headaches; behavioral issues such as verbally snapping; and internal wrestling, such as an uncharacteristic negative attitude or ungodly thoughts that are out of the norm for you. Literally, the believer feels “choked” and “suffocated” or confined without options.
[4] Cryptocurrency, if read by the initial “designer”, is designed to fail and remove all human trust elements in exchange. Nakamoto, S. (n.d.) Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
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