January 27, 2025

Week 4: The Parable of the Sower | Pray Through the Gospel of Mark

WEEK 4 – THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER 

For the next 10 minutes or so, we are going to turn our attention to God in prayer. He desires to meet with us today. To talk to us. To share His heart with us. Take a moment and pray this simple prayer that can be said in the span of a breath.

Lord, Prepare my heart to receive Your truth.

As I read the following passage from Mark 4:1-9 and 13-20 listen with the expectation that God is moving towards you, to speak to you, through His word.

Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. ² He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, ³ “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. ⁴ As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep.⁶ When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.” ⁹ Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

¹³ Then he said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. ¹⁶ And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸ Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word,¹⁹ but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

Not everything Jesus says is easy to understand.

It requires slowing down to hear. And not everything He says is easy to receive.

Take a few moments to reflect on the following question:

Ask yourself, “How receptive is my heart to the words of Jesus?”

In this parable Jesus describes forces that want to stop His words from producing fruit in our lives. The enemy of our souls would prefer that the word stay on the periphery of our hearts, to be easily plucked. The ways of the world are at war with the word in us and come in to scorch new growth. We need our roots to be deep in Him. And our own deceptive desires can choke the word in favor of pursuing life on our own terms.

But when the words of Jesus are planted deep within us His life begins to flow out of us. The fruit of the Spirit begins to grow – we bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We become carriers of life that Jesus works through to sow more seeds, to produce more fruit.

For the next few moments, we are going to pray that our hearts would be good soil to receive the words of Jesus and bear much fruit.

In the space between each line pray in your own words or sit quietly and listen for the still small voice of the Spirit.

(Whenever there is a space between lines in the prayer add a longer pause for personal reflection.)

Lord, I open my life up to You now.

There have been times I have flirted with the Truth, letting it skim across the top of my life, only to have it stolen from me.

Lord, let Your word sink down into the soil of my heart. I welcome it.

There have been times I’ve had joy in the receiving of Your word but fell away in the pruning and the proving.

Let the roots of Your word grow deep.

There have been times I’ve let the word be strangled because I treasured worldly things more than the true riches it could bring.

Your word is precious to me. I will hide it in my heart.

May my heart be good soil. May Your word produce fruit in me thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.

Hear the Word of the Lord:

⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping your word.
¹⁰ I have sought you with all my heart;
don’t let me wander from your commands.
¹¹ I have treasured your word in my heart
so that I may not sin against you.
¹² Lord, may you be blessed;
teach me your statutes.
¹³ With my lips I proclaim
all the judgments from your mouth.
¹⁴ I rejoice in the way revealed by your decrees
as much as in all riches.
¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts
and think about your ways.
¹⁶ I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.

PSALM 119:9-16

Amen.