This week we're spending time with one of Jesus' most familiar parables—and one of the most uncomfortably personal.
A farmer scatters seed. Some falls on hard ground, some on rocky soil, some among thorns. Only some falls on good soil—and only that seed bears fruit. Jesus told this story to crowds gathered at the water's edge, and then pulled his disciples aside to explain what it meant.
The Parable of the Sower appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. On Thursday, we'll look at what each Gospel account reveals when you read them together.
But today, we start with what Jesus said it means.
After describing four kinds of soil—four ways the same word lands differently in different hearts—Jesus arrives at this:
“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”—Matthew 13:23 (NKJV)
The NKJV Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, one of the 70+ resources available with Bible Gateway Plus, offers this:
God wants us to hear, understand, and put into practice His counsel and instruction. He doesn’t see us as vaults into which He hides His Word, but rather as gardens in which His Word can sprout and grow.
Not vaults. Gardens.
If you imagine yourself as God's garden, what needs tending? What would it look like for you to become more receptive to what God is saying?
Read the full parable: Matthew 13:1–23
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