Saturday 1 Mar 2014

Saturday Reading: Mark 4:26-32

Key Verse: Mark 4:27
and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

Devotion:
When Jesus had explained to the disciples how important it was to spread the Gospel like a sower would sow seeds, He backed it up with this thought for them too. When we put seeds in the ground, we don’t know what makes those seeds suddenly spring into life; yes it is moisture and nutrients, but what actually wakes the seed up from being dormant? Do we actually need to know exactly what does? No! We just expect the seed to grow.

And so it should be with the Gospel. When we give it out to others, we should expect it to change them. If we tell people about God and about Christ and expect them to do nothing about it, then that is probably what will happen. The attitude in which we present the gospel will be take on board by the person we are speaking to; if we give it out in a manner that shows we don’t really care, then they will not care! Be expectant. Be positive. Share with love!

Expect the seed to fall on all sorts of ground and expect there to be some failures, but expect the majority to bring forward new life… and that is what will happen! We may only be planting the smallest of seeds into ground that we do not know, but we are planting the seeds. All manner of flowers, trees, shrubs and other vegetation grows out in the wild with nobody looking after them. So what can we expect when we plant seeds and the nurture them? Much more!

One thing I have learned is that you cannot expect anything to grow if you are not going to stand by and water it after you have planted the seeds! We reach out to the youth in this area (which is no easy task) and we have to continually back up our words with the Gospel message through what we do and through how we support them. Without that nurturing they would forget everything just as they tend to with so much in life nowadays. We may live in a throw-away society, but there are many things that are still held dear. Make God’s Word one of them!

Points to Ponder:
Do you give out the Gospel?

Do you back it up with actions?