Fertile Ground

These thoughts started on Monday when I read James 1:13-18 which is my text for this week. FYI I’m doing this 40-day retreat but spending a week for each day – which has been marvellous so far. Anyway, that was the text that started this, then came an emphasis on daily quiet time from EDWJ. Tuesday brought a sermon from Elevation church asking ‘who sets my standards?’ and today I read the parable of the Sower.

So, lots of things to think about but there was a common thread for me which was coming closer to God; that is the desire of my heart. I want to always be moving towards Him, being renewed and transformed, becoming more like Jesus.

The passage in James is thrilling, it is full of hope and encouragement, things I already shared this week – that God is good, that He loves me and always will. I have been called to life by His message of truth – these were the words that resonated today, that I turned over and chewed on. I wondered about James as he wrote this letter. I believe the Bible is God’s word and was inspired by the Holy Spirit through imperfect men. I don’t think He handed them tablets of text to copy but, as He still does, He whispered to them through dreams and memories and new ideas producing the material He knew we ‘d need for life.

I wondered, if as James wrote “He brought us forth, (gave birth to, produced)”, the Holy Spirit reminded him of the parable I mentioned earlier. There’s a bringing forth of life there, seed sown and hidden to burst forth with life and fruit. It’s a great parable about evangelism, about sowing the Good News and seeing some people ignore it, some accept it but lose their faith because of difficulty or temptation and others grow and produce lots of fruit.

But is it just evangelism? Is it just the Good News preached to unbelievers. I always saw it that way until today when God had kept pounding at my heart all week with that question “who sets your standards?” and I had written in my journal how I was avoiding thinking too hard about it because I knew some of my standards needed to be reset. This is hard to write because I still don’t want to reset some of them…

That seed being sown is the Truth of life and godliness, the Truth of dying to self and taking up a cross, the Truth of a light burden and easy yoke. But it’s as much to me as a believer, a maturing Christian as it is to a non-believer or the greatest saint. My heart has fertile places where fruit grows. But it also has stony parts where that seed bounces off to be pecked away by birds. And it has rocky parts where the Word takes root but I neglect to dig out or rather let God dig out, the rocks and weeds so it can grow and multiply. As I consider this I think how true it is that the heart is deceitful above all things and that prayer – Create in me a clean heart is never more true.

Thank God He has promised me a new heart, a heart of flesh, soft and ready to receive the Word and be changed. Thank God He never changes His mind when I let that new heart get hard and stony but His mercies are new every morning.

Short accounts people, the only way to grow!