Thanks for joining us on this journey of building a consistent habit of reading our Bibles every day. The Bible reading plan we are using this year can be found here: One Year Bible or here on the Bible app. As always, if you miss a day, don’t feel compelled to go back and catch up. Just skip it and start back on today’s date. I am reading the NLT this year, but feel free to use whatever version you prefer. Now here are some thoughts from today’s readings:
Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
– Mark 4:8
We always seem to see the best in ourselves, don’t we? Here in the parable of the sower, it’s easy to immediately see ourselves as the good soil (and maybe even start think of others who would fall into the bad soil categories). It’s those kind of thoughts, however, that keeps us from seeing what God is really trying to point out in our own lives. If we never shine the light of the bad soil on our own hearts and lives, we may never see our current state for what it is and then will never actually become the good soil.
So use this parable to really examine yourself. Do you get really excited about God, only for that excitement to fade as quickly as it came? Maybe you’re the rocky soil. You may need remove priorities from your life so that you can grow some roots. Do you feel like you want to believe the word of God and the messages you here, but it seems like that passion to care goes away almost instantly? Maybe you are the wayside and you need to pray that God would give you the heart to receive His word. Or maybe you’re like me, and you find the cares of this world and the sins of this world sometimes climb up and choke what God is doing in your life. If so, then we are the seed in the thorns. We need to ask the Lord to uproot the weeds in our heart and help us to forsake this world, clinging only to Him!
Here’s a few tips. Self-awareness is a hard skill to just pick up. Most people are not aware of their lack of self awareness. Therefore, it may be a good idea to ask some people close to you who love you to give you a “soil test”. Also, ask the Lord to help illuminate the bad soil in your life and heart. Once you know where you’re issues lie, you can then allow God to lovingly garden your heart into the good soil that’s going to reap an amaing harvest.
Which soil do you think you are most like and why?