Harsh to realize, but reading the parable of the sower and the seed for
what seems like the umpteenth time I realise that for a long time I was
a seed planted among the thorns.
Why is that? You might ask, you
know and love the Lord, you have to be the seed planted on the good
soil. Yes, I might reply, yes, that's true. But there were things in my
life that I loved more than the Lord and while I strived to love the
Lord with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength, these other
things generally won over Him because I was trying to love on my own
terms and with my own strength.
Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
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.
Mostly it is the desires for other things that kept me from making the
leap of faith. Whenever God said to do something - go talk to that
stranger, go give that man a cup of tea - my desire to be comfortable
wins over my desire to minister to the sick and the hurt. This desire
wrestles with God's desire and normally wins out, thereby loosing a
chance to plant a seed and thus being unfrutiful.
There is at least some hope. That hope comes in the form of a yearning
inside to erase the doubt that clouds my heart when it comes to the
things of God and to allow him to provide the boldness it takes to
break down the comfortable barriers I've built up around me. There is
hope in moving towards the good ground.
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it,
and
produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times
what was sown.
Where in your life can you apply this parable?
[references from Mark 4]
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