What kind of soil is in your heart?

     In February of this year we moved back into a home we had lived in about five years earlier.  When we lived here before, we had a small garden that produced pretty well so we planted a new garden in the same spot this year.  However, it did not produce well this year.  It seems that the soil is not in very good shape. It definitely needs some work.  We will try to improve the soil before we plant again in the hope that the garden will produce better next year.

     I was thinking of this when I read the familiar parable of the sower in Mark 4 (also in Matthew 13).  The sower sows the Word of God.  The soil represents the one who receives the word.  Using a common farming method of the time, the sower sows the seed without first plowing the field.  The result depends on where the seed lands: along the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, or into good soil. 

     When the seed is sown along the path, Satan immediately comes and takes it away.  When it is sown on rocky ground, it is initially received with joy, but when tribulation or persecution comes on account of the word, the receiver gives up.  When the seed is sown among the thorns the receiver hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things choke the word and it produces no fruit.  However, when the word of God is sown in good soil, the receiver hears it, accepts it, and it bears much fruit.

     I think this applies to the initial hearing of the gospel and also to the way we receive the word after we become Christians.  As we pray for the salvation of others, we can ask God to till up the soil of their hearts so that they might hear and receive the word and produce much fruit in their lives for the kingdom of God. We can also pray for our fellow believers and for ourselves that God would plow the soil of our hearts to receive his word, not allowing Satan to take it away, keeping us from giving up in the midst of trials, keeping the word from being choked out by the cares of the world.

     May God give us good soil!  The tilling may be painful, but it will produce much fruit.

Mark 4:1-20

URL: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%204:1-20&version=NIV