For something to grow effectively, it must be planted in good soil. While this serves as a great gardening tip, the advice stands true for every sphere of life. Think about anything you’ve ever tried to grow. Maybe it was a literal plant, a friendship, a relationship, or even a business. It would be hard to deny that for the ultimate growth of whatever your venture was, you had to ensure that the foundation, or the soil metaphorically, was favourable for growth to take place. What exactly makes a foundation favourable? A favourable foundation is one that can withhold whatever will be rooted and ensures proper development built for growth. This comes from hard work. It takes actively putting in the things that can promote growth, and removing those that can hinder it.
In deciding to start this ministry, we thought to ourselves, “How do we do the “groundwork” for this venture?” Essentially, what work can we put in to ensure that this ministry can benefit as many people as possible? Doing the research and getting the word out there seemed like obvious answers, but what if it’s a little bit deeper than that?
The Parable of the Sower
The parables are my favourite parts of the Bible. Parables are stories Jesus would tell using elements of everyday life for ease of understanding, but the meanings were always powerful and spiritual. One of my favourites is the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4). Here, Jesus uses the seeds being sown to represent the Word of God. He went on to describe three types of soil that the Word falls on, but no growth follows. Then He mentioned the “seeds that fell on good soil” and how much success came out of them. In His explanation He mentions that those seeds represent the ones that hear God’s word and receive it, and in them the Word of God is extremely fruitful (Mark 4:20).
There is life and potential for spiritual growth in the word of God. But much like a seed its growth is dependent on the ground it is planted in. That ground is our hearts.
I’ve been thinking lately and asking God “Has the condition of my heart prevented your Word from living and growing in me?” The thing is, how can we know if our hearts are hindering the ability of God’s word? Here are some pointers from the parable itself that Jesus shared with us:
1. Some fell by the way
Have you ever fed some random birds in a park or even on the side of the road? As the crumbs land the birds devour, almost as though standing guard. Well, that’s basically the fate of the seeds that fall by the way. As they landed on the ground, the birds came and ate them up (Mark 4:4; 4:15). Sometimes our hearts are like hard ground. There is no potential for growth because we aren’t always open to the understanding of God’s word and what it says. When that happens, the enemy gets a chance to come in and ensure that God’s word doesn’t even have a chance to develop in us. Are our hearts hardened to God’s Word? Are we allowing the enemy the opportunity to steal the potential change that the Word can have in our lives?
2. Some fell on stony ground
Have you ever heard the term shallow ground? Well that’s basically where the next set of seeds landed. There wasn’t much earth for them to catch deep roots because of all the stones that were present. So, even though they grew, it didn’t last long, and the heat of the scorching sun took them out (Mark 4:5-6; 4:16-17). Sometimes our hearts are like shallow ground. We hear God’s word and it lights us on fire. Unfortunately, this fire is more exciting and enthusiastic than anything else, and we don’t take the time to let the Word “take root” in our lives. When problems come our way, and become too much for us to bear, we decide to leave God’s word behind and we “wither away” from God. Are our hearts shallow? Being excited about God is an amazing thing, but is our excitement for God’s word stronger than our investment in it?
3. Some fell among the thorns
While every other seed didn’t grow because of the soil itself, this particular set couldn’t thrive because of what was already growing in the soil. Jesus said that the thorns literally choked the seeds until they could no longer grow. He describes this set of people as those of us who hear God’s word, know God’s word, could probably even write about God’s word. But sometimes the cares of life make us unfruitful (Mark 4:7; 4:18-19). Anxiety, worry, fear, all these things work to diminish the effect of God’s word in our lives because when we get into that mindset, we tend to not remember God’s Word at all. I hate to admit it but, this one resonates with me the most. I have come to realise in my life that I had to let go of these things for my faith to grow. Are our hearts filled with things that make us forget God’s Word? Have the cares of life made us spiritually unfruitful?
What Do We Do About It?
We need to establish that the ineffectiveness of God’s Word has a lot to do with the condition of our hearts. God’s Word is very much alive today and has potential for spiritual growth. So how do we go about this ground work? How do we fix our hearts so that God’s Word has a chance to grow in us? The simple answer is this: We can’t. We are not able as humans to fix our own hearts. I mean, without Jesus pointing this out to us, we wouldn’t have been able to point out that we had a problem in the first place. He knows our hearts better than anyone! He is the only one that can make our hearts good soil. A soil to sow seeds that can be fruitful in our lives. Whether seeds of love, kindness, forgiveness or humility.
Will you pray this prayer with me?
Dear God, I want your Word to Live and grow in me. Search my heart. Identify my problems. Whatever you have to remove, please remove it. Whatever you have to change, please change it. Whatever I need to let go of, help me to let go. Help me to be willing to submit to the process. Help me to be willing to submit to you. Knowing that, as I grow in You, your word will grow in me. In your name, Amen.
ThreeSixteen Ministries 