Preparing the Soil

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
-Matthew 13:3-8

We all should be familiar with this common parable. When I see it, I think of it as perfectly understandable that there are many different kinds of people worldwide accepting or denying salvation every day, and there are many ways they view the God’s message. My take on things, is that, it is an understandable part of life, and Christianity, to deny His gospel, but it doesn’t apply to me.
But the thing is-- it does.
This parable isn’t only talking about the salvation message that God wants to present to us, and already has given many. This section of God’s word is talking about preparing the “ground” of our hearts to receive His word every day. When we refuse or neglect to prepare the “soil”, God cannot use that message, that story, that person, to convict us of sin in our lives.
So, for starters: Don’t assume you are the good soil. It is a fault that many of us make; believing that only others will be the ones to reject or ignore the pricking conscience or the message. We have to take the opportunity to prepare out hearts and make the effort to put out the soil for the seed to take root.
Our friends’ or relatives’ opinions snatch away the seed like the birds did in the parable, when we decide that being popular is more important than sharing our faith. When we aren’t regularly going to church, and keeping our hearts tender toward His Word, there isn’t much soil in our heart to start with, like on the rocky ground. And when we aren’t cultivating those thoughts and decisions that we momentarily made, they can’t take root or grow into habits before our old worldly ways scare them off. If we are involved in secret sin, it will also drown out our decisions the same way as the thorns choked out the seed.
However, when we determine in our hearts to grow spiritually, and to take the steps toward growth when we know we will be in an environment to learn, He will plant the seed. And that seed, those small plants, will flourish with time, and the Sun, into a crop, that will produce many, many more.
So what are you waiting for!? Prepare your soil.