30 Days - an Overview of the Bible in Just Thirty Daysნიმუში

How to Maximise your Potential

Mark 4:1-20

Jesus often told stories to get people thinking. In this case, because the disciples didn’t seem to understand the parable of the Sower, he explained it to them in detail. He said that the seed was the word of God and that the different soils represented different people. This parable may apply to all of us at different times in our lives.

There are four types of response to Jesus’ message:

1. Hard-hearted (vv.4, 15)

Some seed ‘fell along the path’ and ‘the birds came and ate it up’ (v.4). Jesus explains that this represents people who hear the word but ‘Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them’ (v.15). This is when we hear the word of God but it makes no deep impression. We do nothing about it. There are those who shrug off any mention of Jesus with complete lack of interest. In effect, the devil has come and taken away the message.

2. Faint-hearted (vv.5–6, 16–17)

The seed that lands on rocky ground with little soil does not take root properly (vv.5–6) and the intense heat of the sun kills off the plant. Jesus explains that this soil represents those people who, when they hear the word of God, ‘receive it with joy. But since there is no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution come because of the word, they quickly fall away’ (vv.16–17). When something goes wrong in our life or we suffer ridicule or opposition, our enthusiasm for God fades because there is no root. The root is the part of our lives that no one sees: our secret life with God (for example, our prayer, Bible reading and giving) which gives strength to what appears above the surface.

3. Half-hearted (vv.7, 18–19)

Here the thorns grow faster than the wheat and therefore choke it (v.7). Jesus said these thorns are:

• ‘The worries of this life’. These could be job pressures, financial worries or concerns about one’s family or even ministry.
• ‘The deceitfulness of wealth’, perhaps the desire for promotion at work, the grip of financial success or the blinding goal of becoming rich.
• ‘The desire for other things’ which can creep in and ‘choke the word, making it unfruitful’. These things could be good in themselves (making a home, doing our job well, caring for children, keeping fit, putting time and energy into a relationship and so on) but if they distract us from following Jesus, we will be unfruitful.

4. Whole-hearted (vv.8, 20)

The seed that falls on the good soil produces fruit thirty-fold, sixty-fold or even a hundred times what was sown (vv.8, 20). The minimum is thirty times but they all had a very high output. These are the Christians who persevere and do not lose heart. You may feel that you have little to offer but the issue is not how much you have but what you do with what you have. If you hear God’s word and respond to it throughout your life you will produce a massive crop. You may not be famous or ‘successful’ in the eyes of the world but your life will be very fruitful.

For most of us there have been times when we have not been whole-hearted. This does not mean that we have to remain like that. We can repent of the times we have not responded to God, or when difficulties or opposition have overcome us or ‘other things’ have distracted us from following Jesus.

What matters now is that you make the most of the rest of your life – that you maximise your potential fruitfulness. You do this by constantly allowing the word of God to penetrate deeply into your life – allowing him to speak to you through the Bible, as you pray, and through others in the Christian community; as you give, serve and obey the word of God.

Determine not to allow the difficulties or opposition to put you off. Beware of the ‘other things’ that can so easily creep in. Resolve to respond wholeheartedly to God’s word, with the help of his Holy Spirit, throughout your life.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ that has taken root in my heart. I commit myself and all that I have again to you – my heart, mind and body.

Help me to wholeheartedly hear your voice through your word and put it into practice.

References

© Nicky Gumbel, 2024

This reading plan is adapted from the book 30 Days by Nicky Gumbel. It is published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK, and by HarperCollins Christian Publishing in the USA.