3-31-22 Do You Want to Grow Spiritually?

Daily Devotion: Do You Want to Grow Spiritually? - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow’ —Matthew 13:3 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/do-you-want-to-grow-spiritually/ - Listen Why is it that some people seem to grow spiritually more than other people do? The answer is that it’s really up to the individual. You decide whether you will grow spiritually or whether you won’t. Jesus told a story that we sometimes call the parable of the sower, but we also could call it the parable of the soils. It’s a story about a sower who went out to scatter seed. A planter in those days simply took the seed and randomly threw it to the wind, and it landed where it landed. In Jesus’s story, some seed fell on rock-embedded ground, and it shot up quickly but had no roots. As a result, it withered in the sun. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns choked out the seed. Some seed fell along the roadside, and the birds came and ate it. But some seeds found receptive soil, took root, and became fruitful. Jesus essentially said this is how we react to the Word of God. A lot of times as Christians, we don’t stop and think about all that God has done for us. The Bible tells us that He has justified us, which means that God took our sin, removed it, and has forgotten it. In its place He has placed the righteousness of Christ into our spiritual bank account, so to speak. This means that we now stand right before God. It also means that God sees each of us as a new person in Him. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 points out, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (NKJV). God has forgiven our sins and has secured our eternal future. In light of that fact, we should want to grow spiritually.

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