The Parable of the Sower

I have read and heard this story countless times like most of us but I got a new understanding this week…after reading this you may need to go back to it again… Mark Chapter 4

Have you noticed our similarity with the farmer? even though not all of us have farms or have actively farmed we know from school days that before planting, every farmer prepares the land by tilling, fertilizing e.t.c before putting the crops into the soil right?

So this farmer has done all in his power he knew to do, he went out to plant and some fell on the footpath to be eaten by birds, others on stony ground to wither under the sun and some on thorny ground to be choked by the thorns while others fell on fertile grounds.

Imagine the farmer’s disappointment when he saw the birds eating some of the seeds, then he thought, ‘maybe this is the one’ when he saw the one on stony ground germinating, but another disappointment, he hoped again when he saw the one from the thorny ground sprouting from the earth… this is finally it, he thought excitedly but another disappointment was waiting for him when he checked the farm again to see the tender plants choked by the thorns. While the farmer was thinking, ‘what am I supposed to do that I have not done? Is this near success syndrome?’ he went to the farm and saw the ones on fertile ground growing, will it go like the others? He wondered. But it kept growing never to disappoint again till some yielded 30%, 50% and some over 100% of what the farmer put in the ground… Hallelujah!

Most of us have sowed money, work, actions, service, love, prayer e.t.c done the right things we knew to do at one time or the other and watched helplessly as birds of life ate them, watched in disappointment as the sun of life scorched our efforts with its heat, watched as thorns of circumstances choked out the hope of the little results that were becoming visible. But the ones in the fertile ground are more than the past disappointments. It will be so more than what we put in that we forget the disappointment of the birds, stony grounds and thorns…

As you plant seeds in your life, the life of your spouse, your children or your audience know this…

Life and the devil will pose as birds, stony grounds and thorny bush, to eat, kill and choke off some of our seeds but the end results will be more than the ones stolen because there is always a fertile ground beyond their reach.

What if the farmer had stopped planting the seeds at the thorny bush?

Are you still planting your seed?

Are you still looking back and remembering the seeds that have been eaten by the birds, scorched by the sun and choked by the thorny bush?

Do you think the farmer remembered the lost seeds while harvesting his bountiful crops?

Can you see the fertile ground and harvest ahead of you?

Prayer: God I want to thank you for all the seeds I have planted and those I am still planting. I thank you for those that fell on the wrong ground but most importantly I want to praise you for those in the fertile ground beyond the reach of birds, scorching sun and choking thorny bushes. My fertile field is producing a 100% harvest and I thank you Lord in Jesus name.