Ice melts in the Sonshine

The quickest way I know to create icicles in your heart is to stop regularly reading God's Word and talking to him frequently.    Ah, and you probably thought rain on a cold night produced them, didn't you ?

If prayer is the primary way that we talk to God then His Word is the primary way he talks to us.    If you are not praying and reading the Word then you are letting your relationship with him grow cold.  
If you think about it, you will realize that your closest friends stay close because you are in constant contact with them.   When you don't keep up the conversation with God then you are letting your relationship with him go.    Why on earth would you want to do that ?  

Well, frankly ... I didn't.    And I don't.   But I allowed things to slide for a little while through one thing and another and the result was a feeling of ice cubes encasing my soul.    I was really feeling kind of cold there for a little while.   I couldn't get interested.   But the cure was quick and easy - get that conversation going again pronto and the warmth comes right back.   No icicles !    They melt in the Sonshine.

I don't know why I did that because I don't like that icy feeling at all.   I really want to know God and be where he is at all times.   It's so much better here in the sunshine !

So why'd you let that happen ?    That's what I'm asking myself now.

Sickness and burnout, I think.  It made me less vigilant.  I ended last year with a 3 week flu and 2014 proved to be a very busy, stressful year after several other stressful years and I just got tired.  I decided to rest.  And I forgot to stop.   Plus, I often think that giving me too much to do is a one of the Devil's most useful weapons and one that gets a lot of use because it gets to me.   I forget to use the tools that God has given me for overcoming.  

A fresh wind blowing

So this week I'm starting fresh.   And I'm going back to what I know works.   Focusing on God, his Word and His purposes.  I'm taking more time for that and less time for distracting things.  It's been good so far - I have remembered again how to enjoy God's Word and God's presence.    The ice cube around the soul feeling is gone.   And I am wondering how on earth I could have forgotten ?    It's what gives me joy !


So, once again into the fray.   I'm doing two studies at once right now:   a little guided study on Proverbs 31 and another, deeper guided study on freedom and liberty and breaking down strongholds that draws a lot from Isaiah.  But ... well, you know I just can't help it,  I'm always following rabbit trails and I wound up in Matthew 13, looking at the parable of the sower with fresh eyes.

I've often puzzled about this parable because it ends with a peculiar phrase in Matthew 13:9, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."    I've heard various explanations for why Jesus ended with that comment but they didn't satisfy.   So whenever I pause in the parables and read that phrase which he uses in many places, it usually makes me wonder about it all over again.

Prepared Ground for Planting

So this parable of the sower is about four different types of soil into which the Word of God can be sown.  Each represents a different type of "listener".    The first is the path where soil is packed and the sown seed never even makes it into the ground because the Devil takes it away immediately.   The second is seed sown among rocks where a plant can hardly find enough soil to take root.  This person makes a start but doesn't get far.  The third concerns seed that is cast in the briars.  It can begin to grow but will eventually die off because of all the competition.  Stress and wealth provides a lot of competition.   But finally there is seed that is sown on soil that has been harrowed and made ready for planting.   I've always looked at these four types of soil as four discrete things.   But this time it dawned on me.   There are really only two types of soil here:  prepared soil and unprepared soil.

The reason that Christ ends with the admonition "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."  is because he is warning us to decide what kind of listener we're going to be.    Is our soil prepared soil or unprepared soil ?   What we understand of God's Word (whether from scripture or through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in our heart) depends in large part on our willingness to receive right understanding of it from God.    That means the attitude of your heart and the way that you've prepared it effects how it grows in you and affects the fruit that can be produced.  What I am understanding Christ to say is this ... whoever has a heart that is prepared to hear and receive the Word I am sowing, let him understand.

When the seed, which is the Word of God, falls on good, prepared soil then it is capable of producing much fruit - as much as 30, 60 or 100 times as much as was planted.   And the best part is, that when you begin to understand a little, you go on to understand more and more and more.   But if you are not willing to receive what you hear then even the little bit of wisdom you've gained will disappear.   It all depends on how you prepare the soil of your heart. 

That speaks to me of attitude.  The more you want to understand, the more understanding you'll get.   The more you apply it in your life, the more fruitful you will become.   The more priority that you give it, the more blessed you are.   The more willing you are to see what God is trying to say, exactly as he means it ... well, the more he's going to talk to you.

My prayer for 2015 is that God and I keep my little plot prepared so that whatever seed God chooses to sow this year falls on good ground and produces much fruit.