What is left in the basket? - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2023

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your soul. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Colossians 3:16; James 1:21.22.

What is left in the basket?
Some people have an excellent memory. It is said that Cyrus, the king of Persia, remembered the names of all the soldiers in his enormous army. Whatever the capacity of our own memory is, it is mostly selective. We store and ruminate over frustration and deception experienced in daily life but soon forget our own faults and the lessons we ought to have learned. Jesus once reproached His disciples: “Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (Mark 8:18). He insisted: “Let these words sink down into your ears” (Luke 9:44). They should be kept in a safe place, just as we lock up valuable possessions where they canot be stolen.

The Word of God should penetrate our hearts like seed in well ploughed ground, where it can take root. But this demands reading, understanding and retaining so that it produces fruit in our heart and in our life.

Someone may say, “I read it, but I can‘t remember it.” It is like a basket submerged in a river and full of water. Take it out: it is empty. Well, continue reading quietly, remembering that the basket, even if it comes out empty, is thoroughly clean. The Word of God has a power of its own: it is effective in all who believe (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Today’s reading: Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 · Mark 5:15-20