In the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23), God is the sower and the seeds are His Word. You will notice that he did not carefully plant the seeds only in the good soil. He scatters the seeds everywhere in a very indiscriminate manner. God offers His truth to everyone. God wants every single person to receive His word and be saved. In the parable, whether or not the seed grew and produced was dependent upon 1 thing – the soil on which it fell. God’s word will be presented to all people. Whether or not it grows and produces depends on the condition of our hearts. What kind of spiritual soil do you have?
Maybe our spiritual soil is good quality tillable soil. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe our soil is hard-packed, maybe it is eroded and thin. Maybe we have poor drainage – there are things we need to let go of, but we just can’t flush them out of our lives. Maybe the worries of this world have crowded out anything positive. If our spiritual soil is poor, can it be improved? This is where the church comes in. It is the goal of a church to prepare good soil for the seeds of faith and to nurture these seeds to help them to grow and prosper. We need to be concerned with ourselves, and also those people outside our walls. We need to know how to treat poor quality soils.
When we encounter hard-packed soils, we need to practice patience and consistency. We need to understand the hard hearts and the bitterness and respond with love. We also need to trust God and know that he is relentless and will continue to work on softening the hard heart and breaking down the walls.
Thin soils in our gardens are treated by applying organic matter. Thin spiritual soils are treated by giving substance – encourage reading scripture, prayer and attending worship. As the Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another”. Tell your faith stories. Let others know how God has impacted your daily life. As others see how your faith has served you, carried you and changed you, it will give them a hope for their own lives … something that the seeds of God’s word can sink roots into.
When we come across soil that is filled with weeds that threaten to choke out our best efforts, remember what Jesus tells us about worrying … It can be found in Matthew chapter 6, verses 25-34. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
God has planted seeds of faith in all of us. God wants more than for these seeds to survive. He wants them, and us to thrive. We were not meant to struggle through the next week, next day or next hours. We were not meant to have our world weighing us down. We were not meant to be shackled by worry, anxiety and fear. We were meant to have life and to have it abundantly. That is the promise of the eternal God. We were meant for our roots to dig deep and for our lives to produce fruit. We were meant to know God and to make Him known. We were meant to point to the one hope, the one anchor, the one true source of joy, peace and contentment for the entire human race. His name is Jesus. Surviving is for those who have no hope. That’s not you, if you are God’s child. You were meant to thrive. Amen.
PastorKevinAustin 