Mark: Journeying With JesusShembull

When we watch a film and discuss it with friends afterwards, we often find we have different experiences of what we have seen. We can watch the same stories playing out on our screens, but respond to them in very different ways.

We’ve seen the character of Jesus introduced to us. But have we responded to him in the right way? Jesus doesn’t speak to us so that we will have the right answers to religious questions. He’s got a much more personal agenda than that. He wants to bring us into a right relationship with God.

Jesus is holding up a mirror to us, so we can see ourselves reflected back. In Mark 4, he uses the image of seeds growing to represent what it is like to know and follow him.

The question is, what kind of soil is his seed landing in?

You might feel that your heart is dry or unreachable. You might feel it is damaged and unproductive. Let Jesus’ story give you hope. His words, though they may seem small and vulnerable, have the power to break through and transform any human heart.

Mark 4:20

“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Things change, when we truly come to trust and follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit sets about changing our attitudes and our desires. It’s a work that only he can do, and it often starts small, but it grows. There is enormous power packed into a tiny seed.

Will you respond to him by trusting in his word and seeing that seed grow in you?

PRAYER| Heavenly Father, thank you for speaking your word to us. Please open our hearts and ears to hear the truth about Jesus, and to respond with faith and action. Amen.