Your Words…

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. ¹² The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:11-12

¹⁴ The farmer is like a person who plants God’s teaching in people. ¹⁵ Sometimes the teaching falls on the road. This is like some people. They hear the teaching of God. But Satan quickly comes and takes away the teaching that was planted in them. ¹⁶ Others are like the seed planted on rocky ground. They hear the teaching and quickly accept it with joy. ¹⁷ But they don’t allow the teaching to go deep into their lives. They keep it only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching, they quickly give up. ¹⁸ Others are like the seed planted among the thorny weeds. They hear the teaching. ¹⁹ But then other things come into their lives: worries, the love of money, and wanting all kinds of other things. These things stop the teaching from growing. So that teaching does not produce fruit in their lives. ²⁰ Others are like the seed planted in the good ground. They hear the teaching and accept it. Then they grow and produce fruit—sometimes 30 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 100 times more.” Mark 4:14-20

 ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  ⁸ Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  ⁹ For we are God’s coworkers.  You are God’s field… I Corinthians 3:6-9

My Words…

I Praise You

I extol You, Father, for creating seeds – something so small with so much life inside.  Only You could come up with such an idea: blending sun, rain, earth and seed to produce all sorts of plants for me to eat and admire. (I especially like Your peaches.)  Of course, there’s a lesson in this little iota of creation. What’s inside is alive. The outside may look dead, ugly, unappealing, but inside is the assurance that life continues.  Something will grow.  And with tilling, something will grow strong and useful.  All is not lost as long as there is a seed. Just one will do.  There is order in what you create – an apple seed in an apple to make more apples. Throw the core on the ground, add photosynthesis and a little time, then, wonder of wonders, another apple tree.

You created each of us with an invisible, acutely personal patch of heart where Your word belongs – where Your message is planted. You gave us the freedom to do what we desire with that message. Your Spirit stands ready to grow the seed into an abundant crop, a lush orchard, a burgeoning vineyard that feeds not only our own spirits but the spirits of all we know and have yet to meet.

A Prayer for Me

There is a seed inside me: Your message and instructions on how to live intentionally holy. You planted the seed in my heart- that one special place created by You that only You can know fully.

Help me, Father, to give the seed fertile ground to grow into a strong vine, growing and climbing through my body, around my heart, out of my ears and through my fingers.  I pray for Your word to bind my thoughts and actions.

Forgive Me

Forgive me when I do not tend to the soil of my heart – refusing the presence of Your Spirit’s green thumb. I allow the seed to lie there – a dormant seed in a fallow field. I pray for your Spirit’s fertilizer to strengthen my roots (my faith) and produce limbs full of fruit (my works) that nourish both my soul and others.

A Prayer for Others

I pray for Your farmers, Your mission field workers who plant and water Your seed in the hearts of Your children. Their work is exhausting – days, months, and years of toil, with no assurance of the yield. These mission workers are ridiculed, accosted, abused, and sometimes murdered. Yet they embrace their tasks with joy because they have a heart like Yours – a heart filled with love for those who do not know You. Bring them a bed of comfort when they sleep at night and the strength to rise the next day with a refreshed spirit. Some people on this earth have yet to be blessed with Your word placed on their hearts. They have been barred from hearing Your words. Throw open the doors of their homes, their cities, their countries so Your field workers can reach them! But even more than that, bust down the wall surrounding their hearts so Your seed can be scattered. Once it’s scattered, You can do Your work.

Thank You

I thank You for speaking Your words so they could be recorded and used as seeds for our souls. Scripture is finite: books, chapters and verses. But the message is timeless. Where would we be without this ageless blessing? Thank you for leaving us a really good book to read.

More Praise

You are Botanist Supreme. The innumerable plants of the earth are a reflection of Your beauty, Your power, Your joy in variety. You could have stopped at 1,000 different species. You could have stopped at 100,000. But why stop there? Scientists can’t catalog fast enough! The whole of Your plant creation is a symbol of Your love for me: It is incomprehensibly vast, and I couldn’t survive without it.