PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Mark 4:13-20
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop.” (Mark 4:20)
Jesus’s message – the good news of God’s gracious kingdom – is like seed.
Jesus uses this parable to describe how different people respond to this message.
I am especially interested to ponder how this last seed produces a crop.
What does this mean for me, and for how my life if impacted by Jesus.
This soil of the heart embraces the message, and provides a space for it to grow.
It contributes the context, the protection and the nutrients for the seed.
I am not passive; I am “good soil” (v.8), putting something into the harvest.
As Jesus followers, just hearing the message is not enough; we have to work with it.
We have to give ourselves to it, and allow it to form within and through us.
Jesus and the Jesus Way is not natural for me; it goes against the grain of my heart.
But if I embrace it and give myself to it, it will begin to produce itself in me.
How does receiving Jesus’s gracious love shape and form me?
How does reproducing Jesus’s gracious love show itself from me toward others.
Accepting Jesus’s gracious love is not enough; “good soil” produces a harvest of it!
PRAYER
Lord, your gracious love is the fruit you saved me to produce. Help me to do my part to allow your love to grow in and show through me – thirty, sixty or a hundred times what was sown!
“but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ” I see myself getting caught up by the choking weeds of worry, the protection of wealth and other desires getting in the way. I know I am secure in the Lord – even when I may have the pleasure of travel. I find the latter so undeserving and wonder if it is what I should be doing? What right do I have to relaxation and time away? I know I don’t – instead if God allows then I will acknowledge it as a gift from Him – not because I earned it or deserved it – but that I may honour Him and appreciate His hand of creation as I tour. I pray for inspiration so that I won’t get caught up and despair about the things happening in church, community, world and environment – but instead seek to be a part of solutions that make a difference in all these areas!
Hearing the word also means doing it. Listening also includes doing otherwise I have not really listened. Knowing Jesus includes others seeing Jesus in me. I need to be like Christ to those around me. Having heard the Word, I need to produce good fruit. Knowing – listening – doing. Knowing – Loving – Doing. Others will se that I am a Christian by my doing, my love for Christ. Lord continue to lead me making me an instrument of Your peace.
Apples don’t grow on pear trees
Apples don’t grow on pear trees
Apples don’t grow on pear trees
No apples there! it only grows pears
Bananas don’t grow on plum trees
Bananas don’t grow on plum trees
Bananas don’t grow on plum trees
No ‘nanas come! They only grow plums.
Your heart is where the words of your mouth grow
Your mouth is where the thoughts of your heart go
Jesus, change our hearts to bear,
To bear good fruit