Read 
Matthew 13:3-9; 18-23 
“When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.” Verse 19 (NIV) 

Reflect 
The title of this devotional should be creating some memory cells to be firing in some of your minds. For many years this was the vision statement of our denomination: His Mission, Our Mission. It was a call to be like Jesus and to serve like Jesus in the task of bringing the Good News to our world. 

This parable is very well known. Jesus tells the story of a farmer spreading seed – good seed at the time of planting. The good seed falls on a variety of soils: fertile soil, rocky soil, pathway soil and weedy soil. 

Though Jesus explains this parable to his disciples, we still wonder about many things. What exactly does it look like when the seed falls on good soil and produces a crop, “yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown”? We really want to know if we are the good soil, producing the bountiful harvest Jesus describes. Are we good enough to produce 100-fold or just 30–fold?  

Throughout his ministry Jesus gives many clues on what a life that produces a significant harvest might look like, but we can also consider the mission Jesus claims in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” 

What we need to concern ourselves with is not how large the harvest is but rather that we are called to be like Jesus; his mission is our mission. And the Holy Spirit has been given to us, so we are called to go out and do the same. 

Pray 
Jesus, thank you for your Word! Thank you for your Spirit! I pray that my life will produce an abundant harvest for you, and that I may serve in your name. Amen.