For believers in Jesus Christ it’s always time to enrich the soil!  You know the story.  A farmer sows seed that falls on various soils.  Those that fall along the pathway get trampled on while birds swoop down and eat them.  Others fall on rock.  They take hold yet because the soil is so thin, they wither away and die.  The next land among thorn bushes with competition causing the good seed to choke and die.  Finally, some anchor in good soil and the crop grows and grows yielding one hundredfold.   A good crop would normally yield tenfold, so this is an extraordinary yield!

What does all this mean?  Jesus says that the pathway seed are people who allow Satan to grab the Word of God out of their minds and hearts.  Push the Bible to the fringes of their lives. Say it’s but myth and fiction. The rock-seed people have no depth, and when times get tough, they head out of Dodge!  The choked seed are people who fret and worry without faith in the Lord while loving the things of this world, counting their money every night, checking their investment portfolios before and after breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Ah, but the good soil and the good seed, they go together.  The good seed is God’s Word, filled with wisdom and direction.  Like breathing…it’s the oxygen of our lives.  The bread of life that’s kneaded and needed.   At times I go between one soil and another.  Greedy…worried…immature…

I’d really like to be good soil. Luke 8: 15 tells us how.  Good soil hears the Word of God.  Spends time with the Lord in His Word.  To hear Him.  To hold onto Him.   ‘…hold it fast’, Jesus says.  Grab hold for dear life…and don’t let go no matter what.  Good soil comes from an ‘honest and good heart’, whose own word is trustworthy, beyond reproach.  Good soil bears fruit.  And fruit is something for the good of others.  The crop doesn’t get to enjoy the fruit, but others do.  Enjoy the blessing of doing for others, giving to them.

That’s good soil.  Don’t get all worked up… for it says that this soil is ‘patient’.  It’s willing to let God have His say His way…in His time.

Time to enrich your soil?  There it is.  The mixture is available to you anytime you’re ready and willing.  Put the Good Seed into the Good Soil of the Lord.  Watch it grow and grow…

Prayer:  Lord,  help me to hear and heed your Word.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.