Daily Devotions

Matt 13: 23The seed falling on good soil… produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Jesus always taught using simple daily life examples. In those days every one live off the soil meaning either they were farmers in agricultural or pastoral farming. They understand the process and hard work that is involve and also the time needed.

For every work to be successful and productive there need to be a time and a season. Jesus used this example to illustrate the growth and walk in our spiritual lives.

For the last few years I have moves to the suburbs where there is some little space for me to raise a small garden. It is a great joy and a sense of achievement when we see our efforts bearing fruit. I have several citrus plants which I bought and nurtured and now I see them with ripening fruits. This brings a sense of achievement as we see the labour that we have put in bearing fruit.

I have also planted some flowers from seeds and it is also a joy and satisfaction when we enjoy the blooms in the garden. With the flowers comes the fragrance that it emits. It is indeed delightful to see the beauty of the flowers and be refreshed with the sweet fragrance that greets us when we walk in the garden.

The scriptures also tell us that we are like trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. When God planted the seed of the Gospel in us, this seed took root and we gave our lives to Jesus. Some seed grew immediately but it fell on hard ground and soon withered away.  

This refers to believers who live in the world of unbelief. For a very short time they believed and gave their lives to Jesus but because they still did not give up the attractions of the world, they soon went back to the world and gave up their faith in Christ and lost their salvation.

Then there are other seeds that fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with the seed and soon choked the plants. This is referring to the evil people that we will see growing around us. They will continue to grow in the congregation and Jesus said that during the harvest these will be gathered and thrown into the fire. This means that there will be some in the Church who will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

These may even be church goers and they will continue in church and may even be serving in church but their lives are not pure and holy. These will surely miss heaven and will land in hell.

However Jesus said that the seed that fall on fertile ground will grow and bear much fruit. As I said earlier, those plants that bear much fruit are a delight to the master. This means Christians who are righteous and holy are pleasing to God and their ministries will prosper. God will multiple them and will reward them in heaven.

We have a choice to ensure that our lives are like the good seeds that fall on fertile ground. We need to be mature and grow so that we can serve God faithfully and productively.