Today, hide God's word in your heart, water it with daily Bible reading, and nourish it on Jesus. Do this and his word will never return void.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a familiar hymn. I just bet you know it, so sing along.
(Joni sings:)
For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies.
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Christ our Lord to You we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
Don’t you love that? For the beauty of the earth. And wouldn’t you agree that the earth is filled to overflowing with imprints from the hand of our great creator, God? So many spiritual lessons can be gleaned just from observing nature. Like a photo I saw recently. It was of a little English churchyard, and there stands a tall, beautiful oak tree. Now, there is nothing strange about that, until you look closer and you realize that the tree is growing right through the middle of a gravestone! Oh, my goodness! That means over two centuries ago, the force of life has been so strong that that tree has grown and has split the stone in two. What started as a small seed is now a tree that has pushed up and out toward the light. What dynamic power in a tiny seed! And that’s such a great lesson for us, because the Lord often talked about seeds to teach his best lessons.
Like in Luke 8, where Jesus says that “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than what was sown.” Now, later on when the disciples asked him what the parable meant, Jesus begins by saying it in verse 8, [now get this] that the seed is the Word of God.
I think that is so fascinating that Jesus would liken his powerful word with all its grandeur; that he should liken it to a seed, so small and tiny. But think back on that photo I described, the one of the oak tree in the English churchyard, the tree that started out as a small seed, but now has split a gravestone right in half. Just goes to show that all the Word of God needs is to be planted, planted in a heart that wants to seek the light; a heart that doesn’t choke out the seed of God's word with [I don’t know] a lot of worldly pleasures or selfish gain; a heart that doesn’t allow others to choke off your newfound faith. All the Word of God needs is a place in your heart and – don’t worry – it’ll grow; it’ll gain ground; it’ll push up and out, even break apart your own gravestone one day, splitting it in two and allowing you to rise on that wonderful day of resurrection!
So today, hide God's word in your heart. Water it, water that seed daily with daily Bible reading and nourish it on Jesus, the light of the world. Do this and God's word will never return void. And then, like Isaiah 61 says, you will be called an oak of righteousness. Wow! You will be called a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. The more you study and read, the more that little, tiny seed will grow.
© Joni and Friends