By Pastor Steve Nickodemus
Tenacious Witnessing
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path…As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit…”
Matthew 13:19,23a English Standard Version
As I was tilling the hard ground for our garden last week, I thought of Jesus’ story of the sower. Seed sown onto hard ground is snatched away by birds for the ground was hard. But seed sown on well worked up soil sprouts and grows and bears a good yield.
Have you been tilling hard ground lately with someone? Have you been sharing the Word of God with someone and offering them salvation and life in Jesus and they are rejecting this Good News? The ground seems hard and the devil seems all too ready to snatch away what you are trying to plant.
Do not give up on this person. It takes time to till the hard soil of the human heart. With kindness and a listening, loving heart, with the Good News shared in word and action, hard ground can be broken up. Their heart may be hard because of wounding and grief and bitterness and rejection. The love of Jesus is the best rototiller in all of creation! Jesus can break through and produce faith, even in the hardest heart.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9) The Holy Spirit can do what we never thought possible. Let us trust in Jesus and continue to till the ground and plant the seeds… trusting in Him for the harvest! Amen.
Copyright Family of Faith Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado
