Jesus
September 24
Luke 8:4-8, (Matthew 13:18-23)
Scattered seed
Wherever Jesus went, from one town to the next, people kept coming to hear what He had to say. A large crowd had gathered around Him, so Jesus told the people a story to help them understand how the Word of God works in the hearts of different people.
“One day, a farmer went to sow seed. As he scattered the seed, some fell on the path where it was stepped on, and where birds ate it. Some seed fell on rocky ground. When the seeds sprouted, the plants dried up because the soil was hard and dry. Other seed landed among the weeds, which grew with the small plants and choked them. But some seed fell on good, fertile soil and grew into a large crop which gave a hundred times more seed than was planted.”
Can a seed really grow in someone’s heart?
The seed that Jesus spoke of is the Word of God. God’s Word reaches the hearts of people as they hear it or as they read the Bible. The soil is compared to the heart of a person.
When God’s Word touches a person’s heart, it grows as the person thinks about it, understands it, believes it and then does what it says.
Some people don’t want to hear the Word of God and they harden their hearts so that the seed cannot even start to grow.
Some people hear the words of Jesus and believe for a while, but when times of difficulty and testing come, they give up.
Some people listen to the Word, but the worries, riches, and pleasures of life make them forget what they heard.
But some people hear the Word and do what it says. They have a good heart where the words of Life grow and multiply!
Verse for today
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:9