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Matthew 13

3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

/*/*/*/*/ My comments /*/*/*/*/

When seed is sown, some of it falls to the wayside and is devoured by birds, that refers to the folk who hear the word and they don't believe it, hence, "unbelievers".

Some of the sown seed is planted, that refers to folk who hear the word and do believe it, "believers".

Depending, though, on whether they have broken up the soil of their heart, the sown seed can fall on three types of ground and so the seed will either dry up and die, be choked by weeds, or be planted and increase:

1. stony places without much earth
2. thorny places
3. good fertile soil, which had been plowed and tilled and where the sown seed could take root, draw moisture, grow, and yield a bumper crop.

Personally, the way I prepare my heart so that's it is good soil where I can bear good fruit from the Word of God is that I pray. By this I mean that

I forgive others who have wronged me

I confess my sins

I state that I have faith in the Lord

I pray The Lord's Prayer

I pray for people and for groups and for situations needing God's intervention

I thank Him for His goodness

I ask Him for wisdom

I ask Him to guide me

I ask Him to make me more loving

I declare that I will avoid sin and I ask Him to help me avoid sin

I surrender to Him who I am, what I am doing, where I am going, and what I do or don't make of my life, and where I ultimately end up

I ask Him to continue molding me into the person He wants me to be

I ask Him to be with me in the furnaces I experience

I put all my faith and trust in His love for me, His care for me, and in His reliability because I know He will not only be with me everyday of my life but that He will also be with me when I die and for all eternity.

In addition to praying, also I try to obey His Word as I go through my daily life. I try to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with my God.

That's how I break up the fallow ground. Hopefully then I will have a fruitful life so that I am blessing others, am pleasing the Lord, and am staying in God's will for my life.

JM