I was reading through Mark 4 this morning and read through the parable of the sower and the soils. The parable talks about a sower sowing seeds on 4 different kinds of soils; the soil on the pathway, the rocky soil, the thorn infested soil, and the good soil.
A few things came to mind when reading through this parable (Mark 4:1-20)
- The sower is throwing seeds everywhere! Seeds land on 4 different kinds of soil. Jesus later explains to the disciples that the seeds are the "word". In this parable the sower spreads the seeds out onto every kind of soil, leaving the growth of the seed up to the soil itself.
What I find interesting is how the farmer didn't deprive the other soils of seed, but threw them out anyway. That is how we should be about the gospel. Because, the truth is that we can't truly know what kind of "soil" is in ones heart. We can assume we know, but there is no way to be sure. We also don't have a shortage of the "word" or "gospel", so we should feel free to throw the gospel at everyone we can. Because sometimes those seeds will find some good soil, and where there used to be just dirt, there is now a tree that bears much fruit.
- May we be excited to throw "seeds" at people. May we be in prayer about the "soil" in peoples heart. Because there is nothing we can do about the soil, that is the Holy Spirits job.
It is a miraculous thing when the word of God meets ones heart that has been softened by the spirit.
"He who has ears, let him hear"... we need to be giving people something to listen to.
