Things I Can't Believe I Never Saw Before!

I feel like I have spent most of my life being blind and deaf.  Multiple times in His ministry Jesus talks about people who see without seeing and hear without hearing.  At that phrase there is one of two responses going on in every person who reads it:  Huh?  or complete understanding of something that cannot be truly explained, only experienced.  If you have the first response then the description of the second just sounds like a cop out, but there really isn't any way to make someone see or hear something that they just can't see or hear yet.  

Out of nowhere I just started pondering the parable of the sower tonight. (I think I know what that means.)  You can find it in Matthew 13, Mark 4 or Luke 8.  If you've spent any time in a church at all, I'm sure you're already very familiar with it and wondering why I'm so excited about it.  Pretty basic stuff, right?  

It's just that it only seemed partially practical to me before now.  I always got that the soil with the weeds represented when we choose to focus on that which worries us instead of trusting God and therefore makes us unfruitful in ministry and life.  The text makes that pretty plain when Jesus pulls his disciples aside and gives them the inside scoop.  Even with his explanation, I've still been in the dark on how the other two bad soils apply to us, and, most importantly, how to remedy them.  Tonight I feel like I've been given a glimpse.  

The soil symbolized by the road that has the seed stolen away by the enemy represents the hard of heart.  It is packed down, trodden on repeatedly and has a layer of defense built against penetration.  The seed might as well just bounce off and never of been there in the first place as far as effectiveness goes.  This is the biggest way that people can see without seeing and hear without hearing.  It's not that they aren't given the same chance to bear fruit in the kingdom as everyone else, they are just unable to receive it.  

The remedy:  brokenness.  

The only way to penetrate packed hard soil is with a plow.  Plowing is no fun.  It is a lot of hard work, requires direct attention and intention, and it hurts.  None of us likes to be broken open and that's why most of the time the breaking comes with someone else's hand at the plow--God's.  It is His mercy when He breaks open our hard defenses so that His life can get in.  Think about it, the hard dirt of a packed road can't even receive the softening of the water that falls on it.  It repels that rain.  (Water represents the Holy Spirit, by the way.)  We should always pray for God to break up the clods in our hearts and to bring whatever breaking is necessary to get past the defensiveness of those in our lives who just can't see what God is trying to show them.  

I've always identified most with the rocky soil.  I want so desperately to be close to God, to be full of the Spirit and to have the staying power to not give up or be deceived when things get tough.  I have absolutely no problem getting hyped up about what God is doing or wants from me.  I've just always found myself dying out as soon as it gets hard and the emotions fade.   

The rocky soil, Jesus says, has no depth of soil and therefore cannot produce lasting growth.  This represents the heart that has other stuff taking up the space in it that belongs to God.  The rocks are our idols my friends.  They are all the things that we let into our life that serve no purpose other than to fill us in some way that we should be filling with God (the seed and the water) and the things that help us receive Him (good soil).  

The remedy:  repentance.

We can dig up these rocks by confessing our sins, taking an honest inventory of our hearts and letting God take anything that He wants--no matter how comfortable it makes us, removing those idols, and (here's the kicker) not returning to our sin once we have turned it over to Him.  Whenever we choose to turn to anything other than God to be what fills us, we are putting rocks in the soil of our hearts and sapping our own ability to grow and keep growing once the heat comes.  When we do this, We Are Defeating Ourselves!  

I hit a little on worry earlier and need some more time to process it further so maybe I'll blog some on that along with a few thoughts on the good soil.  

Tune in tomorrow for the epic conclusion of, "Things I can't believe I never saw before!"