Welcome back to 40 days with Christ!
Give us five minutes a day and well give you 40 timeless truths to encourage you in your daily walk! Today is day 5.
Let’s begin with prayer:
Lord, as we look to your holy word for truth, please give us ears to truly hear and to truly understand.
In Jesus name, amen.
Reading from the gospel of Mark Chapter 4 verses 1 through 9 (New International Version*).
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
In this parable, Jesus was teaching us that there are different types of listeners. Yesterday in Mark 3, we read about a group of hard-hearted people who had already decided ahead of time that they were going to look for some reason to accuse Jesus. Then, when Jesus taught them the truth about the Sabbath, that word of truth bounced right off of them like a seed hitting the hard packed dirt of a well-trodden path way. It did not penetrate into their soil. Birds came and flew and with the word before it could ever take root in their hearts.
Some hearts are not totally impenetrable. They can accept Jesus teachings at first. But it still never really sinks in and grows to bear fruit. They “sort of” accept it for a while but they let go of it whenever things get tough and the heat is on.
Even others accept the word fully but it gets choked out by thorns.
And then there are those in whom Jesus’s words produce a real and lasting change.
The real interesting thing at the end there? Jesus said “whoever has ears to hear, let Him hear!”
Jesus was sowing WORDS into the crowd that day! Now, I dont know about you, but that sounds to me kind of like an open invitation! To some extent, choices we make can impact what kind of soil we become.
What kind of soil do we truly want to be? Will we open our hearts just part of the way? Will we open our hearts just temporarily? Or will we come to Jesus fully and freely asking him to make his word take root in our hearts and in our lives?
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus,
Please give us ears to truly hear what you have to say. Open our hearts and help us to not only understand Your Word, but to also truly accept your Word. May it take root in our lives and change our way of thinking as it teaches us how to honor you. Helps us to obey Lord. In Jesus name we pray, AMEN!
New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
