Parable of the sower

SCRIPTURE: Mark 4:1–9¹ (KJV)

In studying the parable of the sower, three key facts stand out: the same seed, the same sower but different results. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells a story of four soils, wayside, stony ground, thorns, and good ground. The difference was never the seed; it was the condition of the soil.

The Word of God is powerful. The voice of God is consistent, but the heart of man determines the harvest. Some hearts are hard, the Word cannot enter. Some are shallow, the Word cannot last. Some are crowded, the Word cannot grow, but the prepared heart, receives, retains, and reproduces.

God is still sowing. The question is: What kind of soil are you?

Action:

Examine your heart daily.
Break up hard ground through repentance.
Remove stones of offense and doubt.
Uproot thorns of distraction and worry.
Guard the Word. Nurture it. Obey it.
Be good soil, and your life will produce thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold harvest.

Referenced Scriptures

1. Mark 4:1-9 (KJV): And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. ↩︎