What's So Amazing About Scripture?Намуна

Seed and Rain  

Scripture is amazing: it describes itself as a river, a light and the breath of God. It’s also seed and rain. 

God’s Word is a seed which we should humbly accept as it is planted in our hearts. (James 1:21) It carries new life and new possibilities in itself. When we receive his words into our core, (as one author says) “they generate life, create faith, produce transformation, heal hurts, build character, transform circumstances, impart joy, defeat temptation, infuse hope, release power, cleanse our minds, bring things into being, and guarantee our future forever.”

What does seed need to thrive? First, it needs our receptive heart. Jesus tells a parable of the sower in which his Word is like seed that lands on different soils or states of the heart. Some seed lands on the hard ground of closed minds. These people, through pride or deception, think they have nothing to learn. Some seed lands on shallow soil. These people merely receive it as a little bit of inspiration, not God’s word, and soon enough fade away. Some seed lands on thorny ground. These people receive God’s Word, but mistakenly place it alongside and not above all the other competing voices in their lives. Soon enough God’s Word is crowded out and little to no fruit is born from it. Some seed, however, lands on fertile ground: “The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15) How we listen plays a crucial part in how deeply it will impact our lives. 

Second, the seed also needs God’s rain. God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are … my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain … comes down from heaven … making the earth bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower, so is my word … it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8–11) Wow! The words of God not only nourish the living seed already lodged in our lives—they also span the distance between heaven and earth, between God’s mind and ours. They are the very means by which heaven invades earth.