What Kind of Soil Are You? (Devotional)

"As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." (Matt. 13:23)

One of the dangers of reading the parable of the sower is for those of us active in our church to assume that we are the good soil. It is so easy to be a Christian in many ways in the United States. We don't typically face outward persecution where someone is threatening to take our job away, or even kill us.

JJ moved from the village to the city to find work to care for his mother and siblings. He has been through several jobs because the Islamic employers are uncomfortable with his witness to Jesus Christ. They mock him and torment him and eventually fire him.

Out in the village the Islamic majority taunt the handful of Christians with words like this, "When you die, we will let your body rot in the fields because we will not bury you." Some of us might say, "So what, I won't be there." But it is a challenge to these young believers.

Jesus speaks of the seed being the Word of God, and it is constant in each type of soil. The elements are the same. The only variable is the soil. Are you hardened ground, that the seed cannot penetrate? Are you rocky soil, that is shallow, and does not allow for roots to nourish the new life over the long haul? Are you ground with weeds and thorns that choke out the truth? Or are you the soil that bears much fruit for God? Read Matthew 13 and ask God's Spirit to reveal to you God's perspective on which one you are today.