Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 139:23-24,

Lord, please search me and discern my heart;
test me and discern my anxious thoughts.
Find in me whatever is offensive to You, and purify me.
Lead me in Your everlasting way. Amen.

Reading

Mark 4:26-29

How does this parable speak to You today?

I think we need to consider the parable of the growing seed in light of the two other parables Jesus has just told that both have to do with His Word. In Mark 4:1-20 He told “the parable of the sower, the seed and the soils” which was all about how His Word gets planted in a human life and then produces fruit if it is well received and allowed to take root and grow. Then in Mark 4:21-25, He spoke of His revelation of God as a light that shines to light up the whole house of our lives, and He commanded us to consider carefully what we hear.

So both of those parables are essentially about the impact of the Word of the Lord on our lives but they also both emphasise the importance of the effort we put in to hearing, receiving, considering and applying the Word.

In that context, today’s parable comes as a word of great encouragement. The work of God’s Word in our lives is not directly dependent on our efforts. Yes, how we receive it and process it is very important, but the Word also does a hidden work in our lives totally independent of our efforts. It seems that Jesus is promising that once we have received His Word well (whether through reading the Bible or by hearing it preached or taught) the Word carries its own hidden power to transform our lives.

When we eat a good meal we have to put in the effort of chewing and swallowing, but then we forget about it. Yet, even if we go straight to sleep, the hidden processes of our bodies go to work to digest the food and absorb the nutrients and energy of the food to power our bodies. And this happens through no effort of our own.

Likewise, once we have heard or read the Word attentively (i.e. chewed it), and then gone to reflect on it well in relation to our lives (i.e. swallowed it), the Word carries its own hidden power to impact and gradually transform our lives. And it does so without our effort. As Jesus said in v.28, “All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”

Our fruitfulness is not all up to us. It is a partnership between our effort and the miraculous power of God’s Word to establish His Kingdom fruitfulness in our lives. I find this hugely encouraging, and I hope you will too.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will receive God’s Word attentively to the best of my ability.
• I will take heart that the Word will then impact my life with a power of its very own.

Lord Jesus, may Your Word comfort, encourage and strengthen me today. Amen.