THE STORY OF JESUS: Mark 4:13-20
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20)
God is a communicating God.
His Spirit speaks to our spirits… all the time.
Encouragement, warning, wisdom, insight, comfort, all expressions of love.
In this story Jesus shows how God’s message can be missed:
— some hearts are too hardened to even hear it
— some hear it, but it doesn’t go deep, and withers soon under pressure
— some hear it, but it is choked out by deceptive distractions or desires
— some hear it, and it goes deep, and produces deep, positive results
In other words, a 3/4 failure rate.
Jesus is explaining how many people will not accept Him or His message.
The point of this story is to make me look at myself.
What kind of soil am I, what kind of result does God’s message have in me?
What would a thirty-fold, sixty-fold or hundred-fold result look like in my life?
Even as I read this bible passage right now, will I do anything with it?
Are there ways that I am hardened, shallow or choked out?
My sense is that this passage ought to drive us deeper into listening.
Not just reading my bible, but allowing the bible to read me.
How will today’s reading produce a result in me?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I hear You challenging me about ways that I am closed to Your Voice. Even now I can think of some specific ways Satan is deceiving or distracting me. Lord help me.