“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” – Luke 8:5-8
I love this parable for many reasons, one of them is that I am reminded that it is my job to sow. We need to sow the good seed we have been given, the word of God. We are to just scatter this seed everywhere. Wherever we are and wherever we go we should be sharing God’s word. Too often we overthink this. We think “what if they don’t listen, what if they don’t accept the Lord, what if they get mad, what if they don’t understand, and a hundred more “what if’s” I am sure we can come up with.
In this Parable that Jesus told, the sower, this should be us, went out to sow his seed. He went out with intention, he knew what he was going to do, sow the seed. He did not pick and choose where each seed went. He did not strategically place the seed, he just threw it wherever he was no matter what was around. We can’t control how others think or what happens to them in their lives. We can’t control whether the devil will try and snatch up the seed or what the cares of this life will do to the person. We can’t control whether the seed will take root or if it is good soil. The one thing that we can control is whether we sow the seed or not. We need to stop carrying the burden of what happens to the seed as we sow it. We can do things like water to help, but we need to trust God to help grow it in their hearts. We need to trust Him with all the “what if’s”.
We should go about our days with full intention of spreading the word of God. We should not, however, overthink the process. When we do, it stresses us out and then we often don’t spread the word at all. When we just go about our day and talk with others it should just be a natural overflow of conversation. When God has filled us up, it will overflow. Because God is a part of everything in our lives, talking about Him should be natural. If it does not feel that way to you, maybe try and spend a little more time noticing all the things God has done for you, the beauty He created all around you, talk to Him more continually throughout the day, and spend some time in prayer and His word. As you do these things, it will begin to feel more of a natural overflow.
“Lord, thank you for saving us. You are worthy of all our praise. Forgive us for the times we don’t trust you or walk in fear of man. I pray that you help each and every one of us as we go about our days to share who you are and your word to all those around us. I pray that your Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak and that you would give us boldness. I pray that you would help us to draw closer to you and that sharing your word and the things you have done and are doing in our lives would flow out of us to all those around us. We thank you that you know all and can see all and I ask that you would prepare the hearts of all those we share with to receive your word.”
Written by Rebecca Murzin
