1) Watch and make sure the seed grows - through understanding of the word.
V 19 says "When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart". This is really really tricky. To fully grasp and understand God's word isn't easy. It often requires a lot of time of patience. Sometimes or most of the time, we demand God to give us an answer, to show us a clear CLEAR sign, but it just doesn't happen all the time. When the spiritual realm of things gets brought in, it becomes even more challenging. This is especially so for new believers who may find it hard to grasp to understand God's word and to wait, even in the silence when God doesn't immediately produce a visual sign. And sometimes, when we don't press on in prayer for them, what was sown can just be gone. I know, because... a friend became one of those who had even more questions that when I first met him, his heart was harder than when I first sowed the seed. I think it's a good wake up call to watch when we sow the seed. Even when it feels helpless, and you don't see a change, keep praying. It's the only effective tool against the unseen realm that we're all fighting. Perhaps praying is an effective way of "watering" the seed, making sure the seed manages to set its roots deep first, so someone else can do the "growing" and the harvest even when you're gone.
2) Where the seed grows determines how fruitful your life will be.
"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." v 22-23
Thinks this verse is quite self explanatory. We can watch how fruitful our life will be. Being crippled by worry and fear makes one's life less fruitful than what God intended.
3) You have a choice - to remove the weeds, and let the seed grow. It is in YOUR control.
It is up to you to make the choice to begin the work of unweeding. God gives us freewill. You can continue in doing things that don't give you peace, OR you can turn to God and let Him begin His restoration and transformation in your life. The question is, are YOU willing to let go and let Him take the centremost place in your life? It's your call. Same verse quote as point 2.
4) Unweeding takes a lot of patience and pain, but it is necessary v29
"because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest."
We can't always protect ourselves from every ungodly sin especially in the growing up years. I was a little clueless about this part - it mentioned waiting for the weeds to grow first before gathering them and pulling them out together which is kinda weird. But kyla mentioned weeds bring growth and without them, we'd lose the harvest of the wheat as well. Ie - removing the weeds (bad stuff/sin in life) also removes any growth that these could potentially bring. I'd like to think of it as growing up in the spiritual maturity to discern what is right or wrong and then pulling the weeds out. Because then, we'd have grown and be mature enough to know which are the right weeds to pull. This honestly felt like the intense growth journey I've been on since joining covenant. When the aunties told me the maturity that I have now as compared to when I was a child helped me to understand God's word in my life and so, have breakthroughs in ways I never thought was possible, with prayer and God's help of course. I suppose maturity helps us to reason and to know right from wrong, in view of God's word, in the midst of all the uncertainty and questioning in the world. Which is this week's DJ verse:
"Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ" Eph 4:14-15
The weeds in my heart grew and kept on growing. Until it reached a point when I knew it was crippling me, and what I could be doing for Christ. That was when I decided enough was enough, and began to gather my "weeds" and unweed them once and for all. I'll probably blog about my spiritual breakthrough in time to come, but looking back on the past year, I can only thank God for seeing me through it all. Nothing without His help at all. If anything, there's never too much on depending on Jesus because He never fails. Unweeding was painful, but necessary.
5) The mustard seed.
This spoke of how the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, the smallest seed of all, "yet when it grows it becomes the largest garden of plants and becomes a tree..."
I felt this spoke to me the most. Pd Ed talked about how as a young boy he made a casual prayer to God about using him to change the world. Not knowing where he'd be now. I remember my younger self crying out to God during worship to "use me" HAHHA NOW I ABIT SCARED LOL.
But anyway I do feel a little too small sometimes to be used by God. Perhaps when I share about my spiritual breakthrough, you'd understand why. But this parable reminded me of how God always uses the smallest and the weak because that's when His strength is displayed - in our weaknesses.
So I started praying about my calling after Tim started sharing about his calling during supper at YMEFLC last weekend. Then it dawned on me that I AM HIS AGE OMG i need to start asking God where He wants me to be. Not entirely sure if it's marketplace or ministry now. But ultimately I'd wanna be serving a lot more in ministry in the future. Even though I really love my job now. I guess it's a different kind of satisfaction. BUT yup pocketfuel on insta has been talking about the mustard seed as well. So let's see what else God deposits in my heart these few days/weeks/months of praying.
// Not sure if it's the busyness of work, or the increased QT time with God, but my soul does feel a whole lot rested now. Strange how my QT is actually more effective when work starts. I think less time to procrastinate HAHA or maybe some time pressure works for me.
Side note this post has been under drafts for almost a week. Work's been pretty busy this week, and since tmr is a PH i decided to just finish this ASAP. sigh. Another crazy weekend, but can't wait to write about self worth, spiritual breakthroughs, and the power of the tongue. At least that's what's on my mind.
