Now that the Fourth of July is over, we’re deep into hot summer. We all have pictures burned into our memory, and one that sticks with me is driving through the country during the hot days of summer. My memory still clearly sees a farmer cultivating his corn field. Small tractor, Allis Chalmers, not the big monsters of today. Umbrella shielding the farmer from the sun, no air-conditioned cab. Slow, tedious work, not contracted spraying like today.
Our faith in Jesus needs constant cultivation. I think of some seeds in Jesus’ parable. “Others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19). They heard God’s Word but, this makes the difference, they didn’t monitor their emotions. We all have “the cares of the world,” we all are tempted by “the deceitfulness of riches,” and we all desire “other things.” How can you and I resist the temptation so that the Word produces God’s life and growth within us? Submitting our every feeling, idea, and plan to the will of God, we “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Yale theologian Paul Holmer: “What is involved is daring to let God and God’s will govern and discipline my life when I tend to botch the job. That is a matter of giving up my willing and giving God’s will the energizing role….” (“For All the Saints,” IV, 205).
“But 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). Faith is a gift from God that we want to cultivate for our salvation, and by this cultivation God’s Spirit also increases His works through us. “Do Thou in grace the harvest raise, and Thou alone shalt have the praise!” (Lutheran Service Book, 921:1).
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