Matthew 13:1-9 The Seeds Fall
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 1, 2019, Matthew 13:1-9
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
In that day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside. And great crowds were gathered to Him, so that He went into a boat and sat. And all the crowd stood on the shore. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth. And they sprang up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. And the sun rising, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprung up and choked them. And some fell on the good ground and yielded fruit, indeed one a hundredfold, and one sixty, and one thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
(Understanding the Text) Here, Matthew focuses in on Jesus teaching in parables. A lot of times I think of Jesus mostly healing and only a tiny bit of teaching, but these verses focus in on the teaching. Matthew is giving an example of a situation where Jesus taught people. There were too many people to be inside a building, so the next best thing was to get in a boat and have the people stand on shore.
The people were standing or sitting beside the sea, so the sound of waves lapping against the sides of boats and the fishy smell of seawater must have surrounded them as they listened to Jesus’ words. What did they feel? Were they disappointed because they expected to hear something profound and the story was simple, or were they excited because they knew the simple story was a puzzle that they felt that they could figure out. I think they felt happy with the teaching because it was in a form they expected. I think rabbis frequently spoke in parables.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Why did Jesus tell parables so much? I’ll think about this more tomorrow, but I have some initial thoughts that I want to get down today. I think one of the reasons to tell a parable is so that illiterate people will remember it and be able to repeat it to others. Jesus wanted His teaching to spread. With stories, the teaching would spread and stay in the mind much better than simply telling people that some of them would reject the word of God because they were too distracted and/or loved the world too much. The story makes the lesson sink home, and it is portable. People remember the details and tell it to other people. Also, they were outside, so the people would be open to the theme of the sower sowing the seed.
This parable seems to have a simple message. Some of us reject the message; others accept it but don’t let it have room to grow; and others accept the message and apply it. I’m sure that there are some profound meanings. Why did Jesus think it was necessary to give the people this message? I think maybe He was trying to get the people to pay attention and think about what He was saying and try to apply it.
(Application / Prayer) I don’t have anything really good today. My application to myself is that I need to be good ground, not wayside (beside the path), not stony ground (full of rocks with only a little soil on top), not in the thorns (weeds), but on good ground. I need to let myself become good ground. I need to avoid anything that would choke the message out of me or snatch the ideas from my mind. I need to add any elements to my life that will make my ground more receptive to the message and which will sustain the message in my life for a long time. Thus, I need to not do some things and to do others to become good ground. I should examine my choices and choose the actions, food, and situations which will make me receptive to God’s word and which will fix His word in my heart. God, please keep your Word in me at all times.