02/26/2021
In the parable of the Sower, we see that the success of our faith is being compared to the growth of seeds, and that their bounty depends on the soil on which they are sown. So today we need to look at the quality of the soil where our faith is being planted. Some of us feel that we have been walked on all our lives, and that we are too hardened to ever accept faith; some feel that our lives have been rocky and we are too course and lacking of goodness for faith, and some see nothing but briars and weeds surrounding us and think we are unsuitable for faith, so we feel lost before we start... but all is not lost, and there is hope for us all.
“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.”
Matthew 13:5-6 ESV
This parable isn’t about how our faith is a victim of the soil it finds itself in, or in other words... that it is predetermined by the lives we have found ourselves cast into by circumstance, or birth. No, we need to look at this like a gardener or farmer would look at it... we need to ask ourselves what it would take to turn the ground where we live into fertile soil.
“Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Matthew 13:8 ESV
My father-in-law was raised on a small farm, and the life he experienced there was hard. His family was poor, often hungry, and surrounded by people that the townsfolk nearby felt were too rough to associate with, they would tell you that they were afraid to go “up on the mountain”, but he didn’t accept this as his future, and he worked all his life to change the circumstances he had been born into. By the time he died he was a man of great faith, lived in a beautiful home, had children who would never suffer what he did as a child, and was considered successful by those around him. One thing from his childhood that he never lost touch with was his love for growing things, and this is where the parable of the Sower comes in...
Behind my father-in-law’s house was a beautiful garden, but when he first bought this land it was just hard packed dirt, and rocks, yet in his eyes he saw so much more. He didn’t see his chosen garden spot for what it was, no, he saw it for what he wanted it to become. This is exactly how we should see the land where our seeds of faith will be planted.
“Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.”
Proverbs 24:27 ESV
So every day he would come home from working in the shoe business, put on his old clothes, and begin to dig up rocks, turn the soil to loosen it, and prepare the ground for the seeds he one day wanted to plant there. Every year his garden became a bit more suitable for crops. He mulched up leaves, and dug them into the ground to loosen the clay soil, went to local farms where he shoveled out stalls so that he could spread that manure over his garden and give the soil nutrients, and each year his garden prospered more. Working to prepare the ground for our faith isn’t a singular event either, it is a lifelong labor of loving, reading God’s Word, and watching for the return of Christ.
“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.”
Proverbs 20:4 ESV
You see, the parable of the Sower isn’t all about how we are handicapped by our circumstances, the life we were born into, or how we are limited by the ground that surrounds us now, it is about preparing that ground and making it suitable for the coming seed of our faith. It is not about seeing the rocks and poor soil that is there right now, it is about seeing what one day will be a beautiful garden if we work patiently and steadily with God, and Jesus Christ, to make the ground of our faith more fertile each day.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:22-25 ESV
So don’t be discouraged as you hear God’s Word, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. These, like our parable, are not meant to discourage us, but to give us hope. Jesus didn’t tell this parable to convict us because we are hardened, or damn us because we are more rock than soil... no this is a set of instructions that tells us how to make our seed of faith grow by showing us how to prepare the soil, and where to cast our seeds. What is rocky today can be changed by removing the stones by reading God’s Word, what is hard packed can be loosened by plowing with the gospel of Jesus, and what is poor ground can be made fertile with fertilizer, leaves, and constant prayer. Are we ready to begin the process of transforming our poor land into a beautiful garden?
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your instruction as we prepare our souls to receive the seed of faith. We thank you for your patience Lord as we work each day to prepare the soil within us to nurture and encourage the growth of our faith, and increase its bounty many fold. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who is the giver of faith, and whose Son Jesus Christ teaches us how to bring it to harvest. Praised be your name Father for your Holy Spirit who gives us remembrance of your lessons, and the understanding we need to apply them in our lives. Your mercy abounds Lord as you provide the rain in just the right quantity, and the sun mixed with just the right number of clouds. We pray Father, that at our judgement you will taste the fruit of our faith, and find every blemish has been removed by Christ who perfects us. Call us to your table Father, not because we have worked to provide this meal, but because we welcomed your grace as we labored in our faith to bring you the glory, and did so with a love for your fields that only you can understand. Praised be your name Lord, now, and forevermore.
Rich Forbes