Nashville, Tennessee, United States - The Upper Room Daily Devotional "Every Day - Grace" for Friday, 1 August 2014 - Read Matthew 13: A Harvest Story1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.
3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”
In [Jesus Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.(Ephesians 1:7-8 (NIV))
I spent a relaxing day planting petunias of different shades of pink and red interspersed with salvia. I imagined how much I was going to enjoy caring for and watching them thrive. A week later, after returning from vacation, I approached my flowerbed with some trepidation. I stopped, amazed. How could the flowerbed get so weed-infested in such a short time? I started pulling weeds with a vengeance. Some of them were quite large while others were just starting. Some had grown so close to the plants that I had to wrestle them free to avoid damaging the blooms. These weeds reminded me of my sin. When I neglect to confess and release it to God, my sin overpowers my ability to blossom and grow. Every day I need to take care of sin before it takes root. If I wait for Sunday worship to confess and release my sin, I may have given it time to overtake me. Left alone, sin can grow like weeds that need to be pulled every day. But every day, God’s grace is enough.
The Author: Cindy Curtis (South Carolina, USA)
Thought for the Day: God’s grace is always enough.
Prayer: Loving God, help us to pay attention to sin in our lives. Thank you for the grace you lavish on us when we confess and repent. Amen.
Prayer focus: To accept God’s grace
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