Good Hearts

Daily Reading:  Mark 4

Those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. (Mark 4.20)

Devotional Thought: The gospel (the good news of God’s love) is being sown in your life in many ways: the Bible, your pastor’s sermons, small group lessons, testimonies of other Christians, and so on.  On what kind of soil does it land? 

·       Some hearts are hard.  Our hearts become hardened by disappointments, by indifference, by carelessness, by disobedience, and by lack of faith.  When that happens, the truth of the gospel sits on the surface and ceases to change us.

·       Some hearts are shallow.  We will do the easy things, but when it comes to the hard work required to remove the rocks of sinful attitudes and actions, we pull up short.  The seed goes in, but there’s no deep change.

·       Some hearts are weedy.  That shows up in being spiritually divided.  You want God, but other things seem to choke him out.  Divided hearts try to serve God and ________...  We need to tend our hearts daily, removing the weeds that pop up.

·       I want to have the fourth kind of heart: a good heart, a heart that... 

Hears the word.  Am I listening for the voice of God?  He speaks in so many ways.  It’s up to me to pay attention!

Accepts the word.  We accept it when we act upon it.  The Bible says we are not only to be hearers, but also doers of the word.

Bears fruit!  That is the true test of our hearts.  Are we bearing the fruit of holy lives, Christ-like character, love-filled relationships, and new souls in the kingdom of God?

Is your heart bearing fruit?  If not, then it is time for the soil to be broken up, rocks removed, and weeds pulled.

Prayer: "Search me, O God, and know my heart today.  Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.  See if there be some wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from every sin and set me free." Amen.  (J. Edwin Orr)

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 3.1-8

1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;

2 many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah

5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.

6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah