You Were Made to FlourishЗразок

Day 4: Tend the Soil : Welcome to day 4! Today we’re discussing how we can tend the soil of our hearts to ensure the seed of God’s Word takes root and grows! We can plant many types of seeds, but the most important will always be the seed of God’s Word. No matter how much potential it has to produce beauty in our lives, though, that potential becomes irrelevant if our heart soil is not good. Jesus makes this clear in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23. Planting God’s Word in healthy, receptive heart soil will allow our lives to flourish. It will produce sweet, bountiful fruit, such as peace, joy, purpose, and confidence in our identity. This is why James 1:21 (NLT) tells us to “humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.” Just like a farmer has to constantly pull weeds that threaten his crop, we must regularly pull weeds from the soil of our hearts. We must pull weeds of doubt, worry, resentment, lust, comparison, judgment, and greed—just to name a few! We do this so that God’s Word can have the freedom to grow and produce abundant fruit in our lives. Weeds have a way of hiding, though. The enemy doesn’t want you to walk in freedom, joy, and purpose, so he will do everything possible to keep you from seeing the weeds or rationalizing their existence. To stay flourishing, we must regularly ask God to point the weeds out to us. We should ask daily, “Is there anything I need to pull from my soil today? What needs to be removed so that your Word can produce good fruit?” As we close today, ask yourself and pray honestly: Are there weeds that need to be pulled from the soil of your heart? If so, what are they?