Sowing the Seed in our Life

Scripture:
Mark 4:3-9 - “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

For many years I have understood, talked about and preached on this passage of scripture. To me it was very clear that this parabole about the sower was talking about what happens when we evangelize the world, that some seeds gets burnt up, other seed gets eaten up, other seed gets choked and some see actually grows up. Now all of this seemed to make sense until last night.

Jesus tells us very clearly that “the farmer sows the word” (verse 14). From this we understand that the Word of God is the seed, that the world scorches and chokes the seed that falls in good soil produces fruit. However, having been a missionary, I always looked at this passage as a description of what happens when you evangelize, it did not dawn on me that the result of whether the seed bore fruit or not was dependent on the seed being planted on “good” soil, which is our hearts. Now of course it is all about the seed, the Word of God, but it is also about our hearts, if it is prepared for the seed.

I want my heart prepared to receive the seed of the Word of God and the more seed I plant in my heart the more fruit that seed will produce in my life. But at the same time, I want my heart to be ready to receive the seed of the Word of God which in turn will grow and bear the fruit in that good soil.

Since “faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God” (Romans10:17) then I need to be very careful about, what and how, I hear from the Word of God. Mark 4:24 says, “Take heed what you hear” and Luke 8:18 says, “Therefore take heed how you hear”. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17) We should all desire that our “faith grows excedingly” (2 Thesalonians 1:3) and we should not be “unskilled in the Word of righteousness”. (Hebrews 5:13)

So we need to spend time in God’s Word so that the seed of righteous bring forth the fruit of good soil so that it will be better soils for more seed from the Word of God.

Request:
That we find that time, an hour or two, every day to plant the seed in our life so that it bares the fruit of righteousness.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, Thank you for your Word and making it increase in our life. Please help us to keep our soul’s soil clean and ready to receive your Word, so that you can bring to us its increase. In Jesus Name, Amen