The Upper Room Daily Devotional from The United Methodist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Sunday, 29 October 2017 "A Forest of Faith" by Amelia Rhodes (Michigan) - Matthew 13:31-35
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DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2017
In the 1940s, Floyd Smith ordered a small packet of bamboo shoots in the mail and planted them on his property in Prattville, Alabama. Today, his land is preserved as a county park, and visitors can enjoy what is now a thick bamboo forest with plants standing over sixty feet tall.
Jesus compared God’s kingdom to small things that grow big. In today’s passage he likened the kingdom to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a very large plant and to yeast that spreads through the entire dough. The work of Jesus began with a small group of humble followers in Galilee, but his message soon spread across the globe.
Our efforts, though they may seem small, over time may be used by God to accomplish great kingdom building. Like the small packet of bamboo shoots that grew into a forest, as we continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ and sow seeds of faith in the lives around us, God can use our lives to grow a forest of faith in others. We may think that our part in God’s kingdom is small; but God can turn our little into much.
TODAY'S PRAYER:
O God, show us how to plant seeds of faith in the lives of those around us so that your kingdom will continue to grow in all of us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Matthew 13:31 Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man takes and sows in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up it is larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the birds flying about come and nest in its branches.”
33 And he told them yet another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”
34 All these things Yeshua said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without using a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet,
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will say what has been hidden since the creation of the universe.”[Matthew 13:35 Psalm 78:2]
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God can grow small seeds of faith into a forest.
new believers
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Header Photo Credit: "Harvested Land," Beth Shumate. August 15, 2014. (link)
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