Plant, Nurture, Harvest, and Repeat

Bible Reading
Matthew l3: 1-23

Focus Verse:
Matthew 13:23  "The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Do you have a favorite childhood story that your parents or a teacher told you that taught you a lesson or truth? An analogy that parallels a truth makes that truth easier to understand whether you are a child or an adult. Jesus, in Matthew 13, teaches the disciples and the crowd about the kingdom using 7 parables. He explained 2 of them, one being the parable of the sower.

First there is a Sower which represents God, Jesus, and the believers. Second there is the Seed which represents The Word or the gospel and how the seed is often lost and not reproduced. Third there is the Soil, Jesus described 3 bad soils and one good soil, showing how people receive and respond to the gospel.  A man’s reception of God Word is determined by the condition of his heart.

The hard soil or hard heart hears the Word but doesn’t understand it. So the birds/Satan snatches it away.
The rocky ground hears the Word with joy, but has no root, so doesn’t last when the hot sun or persecution, pressure or trouble come because of the Word.
The thorny/weedy soil hears the Word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word, v.22.
The good soil hears the Word, understands it and then bears fruit, like good seed, reproducing 30 times, 60 times, or 100 times itself.

Have you ever sown seed and seen it land on one of these soils? God does not expect us to have control over the hearers of the gospel but we are to sow the seed. If someone looks at your life what kind of soil would they see? Sometimes Christians fall back into sin. Some Christians fail to be productive, because they are not developing and/or using the gifts God has given them.

We can ask ourselves  1. Am I compassionate about the fields that are white unto harvest?
Am I planting seeds? 3. Am I nurturing seedlings? 4. Am I reaping the harvest?

The solutions to these situations is to renew our commitment to serve Jesus as Lord. Jesus expects every believer to be fruitful and productive. May our faith and our lives exemplify the “good soil”.

Written by Nancy Olive
Mother of Page Johnson, Interlocking Ministries