Understanding Secrets
Opening Prayer
“Uncover my eyes so that I may see the miraculous things in your teachings” (God’s Word translation).
Read Mark 4: 10-20
[10] When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. [11] He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables [12] so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'” [13] Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? [14] The farmer sows the word. [15] Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. [16] Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. [17] But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. [18] Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; [19] but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. [20] Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
In what way does Jesus speak of the heart?Listen, urges Jesus, listen and understand (9). But even those whom he had specially called to be with him (10) were not sure what he meant by the story of the sower sowing the seed into different soils. Their ears were still dull to much of Jesus’ message, but there would come a time that it would all come clear to them. Why do you think Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9 (12)? And why does he suggest that this parable is basic to all the others (13)? He’s talking about the “secret” of the kingdom of God (11); and when Paul uses the same word for “secret” in the Epistles, he’s meaning something that can only be known by divine revelation – God intentionally showing the meaning to us. So the challenge again is to “hear aright” and to understand. Maybe we need to ask to be shown the secret, the “miraculous things” of the kingdom of God. The climax is the “good soil” – those who welcome the Word of God into their hearts and lives, to flourish and transform them and the world about them
Apply
Carefully read again the descriptions of the different places where the seeds fell and the results. Search your own heart.
Closing prayer
God, I want to be fertile soil where Your Word can bear much fruit for the sake of Your kingdom.
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