Devo for 03/09/2025 service- Message by Pastor Clint Sprague
As we roll out our Spring Semester for LifeGroups, Pastor Clint began a series called “Seeds”. This will be a 6 week study allowing for all of us to get closer to God and see growth in our relationship with Him. As Pastor Clint pointed out the idea of comparing seeds to our spiritual growth is throughout the bible. As God is the Creator, it makes perfect sense that He uses “seeds” as a foundation for us to grow. (NOTE-There is a study guide that goes along with this series-there are still copies available in the Mission Grounds Cafe Resource Center)
The core of the message was found in “The Parable of the Sower,” as told in Matthew 13:18-23. Jesus told this story and then compared it to how our walk with the Lord is. Our potential is wrapped up in this story as Jesus told it to highlight how our walk with God is going. (In this parable, it helped me to understand that God is the Sower, His Word is the seed, and our hearts are the soil.)
18-19 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
21-22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
I have broken the verse down above and highlighted keywords. This week's devo is written simply to provide an opportunity for us to seek our potential by looking within ourselves and asking Father to show us where our seed has landed. Then celebrate the seeds that have landed in the good soil, and commit to working with God, with His grace, to correct those areas in our lives that do not produce good crops.
Here are two questions that can get you started:
God, show me the areas of my life where I have planted seed into the good soil.
God, show me areas of my life where my seed has landed among thorns or rocks and show me the way to redeem that.
Don’t forget to invite God into your day!
Topic for Study -
Doing Good
Galatians 6:9
Matthew 5:16
James 4:17
February Memory Verses:
Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.