By: Courtney Gilmour
The parables of Jesus used to confuse me so much when I was younger. I just didn’t get them. I would read through them over and over, trying to grasp the metaphoric concepts, but they would fly right over my head. And it’s not even like they’re particularly complex, I think it was just my lack of determination to understand what He was teaching. But today as I was doing the reading for Matt. 12, I not only grasped the parable of the sower, but I was convicted by it. Which is an awesome thing, having read something 10-20 times in your life and then one day you finally just feel a connection with it and suddenly it’s like you’ve never read it before. This is why it’s so important to read the Bible with an open heart, allowing God to speak to you through your weaknesses and really move you to the point where you want to change your life around EVERY day so that it’s in close step with His word.
People wonder why they have such a hard time living according to God’s plan for us. We wonder why we take certain subjects passively instead of living them out fully. We feel insecure about them and when they’re brought up, we get a nagging feeling, but instead of pursuing it, we console ourselves with all sorts of pathetic justification. As if God’s truths can be picked and chosen. Some apply to us, some don’t. Right?
That’s our mindset. But the reality of it is this: we don’t, and won’t, always understand God’s word and supposed “rules” for us. We can’t think the way He thinks. But He doesn’t want us to, otherwise we would. What we CAN do, though, is pay close attention to what He says. Listen. Feel. Without any self-imposed barriers, without any restrictions or desires to do what WE want. Without holding back.
It’s hard. Really hard. Really, really, hard. Especially when your heart is so set on something. Especially when everyone else makes us feel like one little slip, or one little selfish impulse won’t hurt. But you know, God’s rewards are so much greater than anything we can conjure up in our imaginations. Sometimes we see our futures in the realms of the “perfect love”, and the perfect life, and the happily ever afters—and we dare to think that we can do it on our own? Better than Him? Faster? It’s foolish. What does this world have to offer us that is more fulfilling than God’s best?
Matt 13:18-23 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.0The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
This is what spoke to me today. It reminds me of spiritual highs and lows. Like when you go to an amazing youth convention, like Acquire The Fire or something, and you come back so pumped and ready to serve the Lord. And then Life sets in, and you go back to school, back to your circle of buddies…and then it all just kinda fades away. Falls away. It happens to the best of us, but Jesus says that “the man who HEARS the word and UNDERSTANDS it” is the one who receives the seed that fell on good soil. Yielding way more than what is sown.
I don’t know about you, but I wanna get me a piece of that good soil.
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