Variables that are often outside of our control are “the enemy, tribulation and persecution, cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches.” Things that we are responsible for are that people, “hear, receive, and understand” the Word. The difference in harvest between the path and the good soil was understanding. Communicating the Word in an understandable way is a key to fruitfulness. Another key that Jesus gives is that the Word “finds root” in the individual. Even though a person may hear, receive and understand with joy, harvest cannot come until it takes root in the heart and life of the individual.
Roots are the unseen part of the plant that grow and flourish in winter and in drought. I believe we nurture roots through prayer, intercession, meditation and discipleship. If we are not careful, we can become frustrated or discouraged with the variables that are outside of our control. When we don’t see the growth that we would like to see, it is time to nurture the roots of our lives and the lives of those whom God has entrusted to us.
As we pray for the persecuted church in largely unreached areas, let us pray that their understanding be enlightened, and their roots will go deep into God, that at the appointed time of rain they will spring up and “produce a harvest, some a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
1 Corinthians 3:7-8 “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Andy Clark
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