Sowing Seeds of Life – Matthew 13:3

Christ instructs us, “Follow me.  Go into the fields, put your hand to the plow, and sow seeds for My kingdom.  Go now.  Do not wait for perfect conditions, and having once set out, do not turn back.”[1] 

With each new day, we are to respond to our Lord by faithfully declaring for the listening world to hear that the kingdom of God is at hand.[2] Whatever our individual vocations and avocations, God calls us to go and spread the Good News. We are to go in faith, refusing to retreat though the rocky fields seem barren and our plow seems incapable of breaking through the hard ground.  Rather than fainting under the burden, we are to push on, trusting that the Father will provide the seeds for planting, the rich soil into which we plant, and the rain needed for our crop to produce new life.[3]

While we cannot understand how the Lord causes a kernel of truth to take root and develop into a mighty tree of faith,[4] success does not depend on our understanding. As we plant and water, the Lord performs a miracle, causing the germ of truth that we have sown to grow and increase.[5] After we have done all that the Lord has instructed us to do in sharing the Gospel through not only our words, but through lives that bring Him glory, the outcome belongs to Him. For God, and God alone, changes hearts, so we can rest in confidence that the Father will honor our commitment to serve Him in righteousness. As we allow His glory to shine like the light of dawn through us,[6] we have His assurance that He will use us to spread the message of salvation and to draw the lost to Himself.

We, having received Christ Jesus as Lord, should reflect our gratitude for His love for us by walking in Him.[7] In submission to His lordship and out of a desire to share His message of salvation with those who have yet to receive it, we should sow seeds of hope and faith, and as we do, the Lord will make our joy full. For by loving and serving Him, we become partakers in the miracles of God and share in the rejoicing in heaven over the repentance and spiritual rebirth of those who, though they were lost, enter into salvation through the grace of Christ.[8]

A man may plant

   But he cannot know

By what miracle

   The kernel grows

But in faith,

   He sows the seed

He waters it

   And allows no weed

To choke it off

  So it may bring

A rich harvest

   In the spring

And though the man

   Has done his part

Our Father makes

   The new life start

He takes the seed

   That once was dead

And brings it forth

   To life instead

[1] Luke 9:59-62

[2] Matthew 10:7

[3] Matthew 19:25-26

[4] Mark 4:26-27

[5] 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

[6] Proverbs 4:18

[7] Colossians 2:6-7

[8] Luke 15:10