Good and bad soil (5) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2023

Others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Matthew 13:8.9.

Good and bad soil (5)
The final type of soil is good earth. It is sufficiently deep and free from thorns and large stones. The seed falls in it and, finding ideal conditions, germinates, grows and produces fruit – an excellent process!

The Lord Jesus explains the imagery of the good earth in this way: “He who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit, and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (v. 23).

We immediately sense what this means: hearing and understanding the Word of God, i.e. being prepared to receive it, thinking it over, allowing it to affect my heart and conscience and change my life as a result. Then fruit will ensue.

This fruit is the proof that our faith is genuine. The person concerned has truly been “born again … through the word of God that lives and abides for ever” (1 Peter 1:21). God’s children do not all bring the same amount of fruit for God: some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundrefold. But they all “bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

Where do I fit in this parable?

Is my heart so hard, that the Word of God is rejected outright?
Do I approve of God’s Word with my intelligence and emotions, but do not permit it to affect my life?
Do temporal, earthly things stifle the seed of the Word of God?
Or do I truly listen to God and His Word, so that it has a permanent effect on me and brings forth fruit for God?
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Today's reading: Leviticus 7:22-38 · Psalms 54:1-7