Thorns & Thistles

Genesis 3:17b-18a
"Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you..."

Ever have one of those days where all your tasks seem to go against you?
Jobs that are your responsibility don't go smoothly, for me that mostly entails machines, even just now I had to get a folder going that had stopped due to wear and tear. whether at home or at work things brake and don't always go as we'd hope; ovens, washing machines, computers, numbers (if your an accountant or something), or worst case scenario you're a character in a film and your car won't start as you try to escape an axe wielding maniac (I think this is merely a portrayal in film of the fear most people have when they're late for work and the car won't start, not to say your boss has an axe or is a maniac)!

Whatever it is, things in our dominion, tasks that are ours, machinery we rely on; all brake and let us down.

Do you ever think about this in relation to Genesis and the curse?
God, as part of His curse on us for sin said that it would be by the sweat on our brow that we would eat. Meaning that our jobs wouldn't be easy going. That thorns and thistles, which I think hold a much wider theme of difficulty, wear, tear, rust and decay etc, would plague us as we go about our daily business.

But this curse is not meant to be just a curse, but holds a great lesson for all of us if we'll listen and think.
As we work with decaying, broken and seemingly stubborn, dysfunctional and frustrating things, we get a bit of a pointer that God is working with decaying, broken, stubborn, frustrating and dysfunctional things; US!
How often we as Christians sin against God, go opposite ways than He would take us, neglect Him and act as thorns and thistles in His hands?

Today as things don't go our way, as things in our domain and as tasks let us down, don't go easily and smoothly, brake or frustrate us today may we allow them to point us to something much worse; that we are far more dysfunctional and broken before our sovereign God and may they bring us to prayer that He, by His Spirit would work in us that our inclination to sin and rebellion would decrease and that Love for Christ and Righteousness would increase, that we would be less like a thorn and more like Christ!