Wednesday 20 Jul 2022

July 20: Matthew 13:1-9

Key Verse: Matthew 13:8
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Devotion:
What sort of sower are you? Do you pick out your seeds very carefully and plant them one at a time where you know they are going to grow so you are guaranteed of a crop even if it is small? Do you pick up whatever seeds are available and scatter them liberally all over the place and sit back to see what happens? I hope you are neither of these but something very different!

In order to share the gospel with people we need to do some sort of preparation to the land. It is no good sowing seeds if you don’t know what the land is like and have not turned over the soil and are not prepared to follow the sowing up with a lot of tending and watering where necessary! God does not just want us to be sowers but to be workers of the land.

You will know about some of this work if you have ever tried to grow your own produce or be self sufficient in any way. If you know any farmers how about spending a short while with one and finding out how much work goes in behind the scenes, work which we don’t always get to hear about or see… No matter what line of work we are in, there is normally a lot of preparation before the work and more support after the work so the work can succeed; the same goes for our work with God to share His Word.

We should not pre-judge our land either. Our task is not to judge who we think is worthy of the gospel but to share the gospel wherever God has led us to share it. This could be in a place which makes you uncomfortable or in a place where you think nothing is possible. Jonah was sent to take the scriptures to Nineveh, a sprawling metropolis where everyone had lost their way, a place where it was unlikely anyone would listen to him; but God knew the time was right.

Points to Ponder:
Do you pre-judge your sowing grounds?

Will you go where God asks you?