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Day 2: Is More Possible?

Bible Reading: Mark 4:1-20

In my experience with young kids, when you ask them what they would love to have before going to shop, their answers don’t change based on the amount you offer. What they want is what they want. Whether you make a provision of one thousand, ten thousand or a hundred thousand naira as funding for shopping, the child who want a lollipop wants it, and the chid who wants a bicycle wants that.

As a parent, that’s good sometimes, and highly profitable, especially when the funding is coming from some Uncle or Aunty windfall.  When it isn’t profitable, like when my daughter was throwing tantrums in a mall and demanding to buy some very expensive teddy bears because she had saved a hundred naira or so in her piggy bank, I totally switch the conversation to a stern lecture on the prices of items and the value of the money that they have. 

But if I stop being the parent for a moment, and think of it from the perspective of the child, the big question is whether more is possible with what I have?

Am I content to walk out of the mall with a twenty naira candy when I was actually on a ten thousand naira funding?

Our reading today demonstrates that kind of a life. How often are we coming back with nothing when God has invested his precious seeds in us? I cringe at the thought of God sowing the seeds of all that He wants to bring forth in my life and at the end of the conversation, I lose it all or greatly underproduce.

In a season of the new that God is working us in, I think the big question that should be ringing in our hearts is ‘is more possible?’ 

Is more possible in my character? Is more possible in my level of trust and faith? Is more possible in my level of peace and assurance? Is more possible with the pursuit of the vision God has given? Is more possible in my love walk?  Is more possible in my level of courage and audacity? Is more possible with my marriage? Is more possible with my finances and supplies? Is more possible with my generosity and compassion? Is more possible in my career and business?

I’ll tell you what friend, more is possible! It boils down to how we are learning to maximise the seeds God is constantly bringing into our life.  

We learn today about a key determining factor of our fruitfulness and productivity with what God wants to do in our lives- our heart.

We see that our productivity and fruitfulness will look more like the condition of our heart than the opportunities and investment that God makes towards us. 

Is your heart tuned to the level of the God-seed and promise?

The four heart conditions that Jesus showed in our reading today, in my estimation, are not necessarily four distinct and absolute classifications, but I find that I slip towards each of them in different ways and in different areas of my life. The burden that studying them should leave us with is to serve like a mirror, and help us correct what doesn’t look right in us, and work towards making what looks good even better.

The Wayside Heart (Too Close To Satan) 

The first heart condition is the one that receives what God is doing but ‘immediately’ Satan picks it out.  That simply means there is too much access for Satan in the core. At some point, the conversation must really go beyond whether listening to some type of music is good or bad, or which scripture says I cannot be a christian and still have an unbeliever best friend or do this or that- at some point, the conversation must be about realising that all Satan needs is enough closeness to be able to steal all that God is bringing into our hearts. 

The Stony Heart (Rigid and Shallow)

The description Jesus gives of this is that it is not deep. It’s stony and hard. Does God have access into the deepest parts of your soul or its just a surface thing. This is the guy that will be all excited at Sunday morning church, but Sunday stuff doesn’t change anything about Monday living. He is hell bent fixated about how he wants to run his life and so God’s word is just an activity for the sake of an activity- the heart is stony.  

The Distracted Heart (Present, but choked)

This is real relatable. He’s not a bad person in anyway- I feel he’s more of a real person. He’s simply dealing with the ‘cares of this world’ and the ‘deceitfulness of riches’ and the ‘desire for other things’. That’s simply being human. I think the big lesson is how we need an attraction to Jesus that is stronger than the daily distractions we do life with. At some point, our love for Jesus must be a ‘more than these’, not just an among everything else.

The Good Heart (Fruitful)

Here is the mark and must constantly be our pursuit and striving. In my estimation, it’s not so much a destination as it is a constant journey. The process of fruitfulness that Jesus lays out is that we hear the word and accept it. We must constantly be on that journey.

In meditation today, I invite you to be asking yourself ‘is more possible towards maximising the possibilities of God in this season before me?’  

Lean in Moment: 

Catch a 10 minute time of meditation and prayer on today’s devotion here

 

6 Comments

  • Tai
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 7:43 am

    Create in me a clean (right) heart, dear Jesus!

    Thank you so much for this profound word sir.

  • Akin Ini
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 8:28 am

    “I cringe at the thought of God sowing the seeds of all that He wants to bring forth in my life and at the end of the conversation, I lose it all or greatly underproduce.”
    I need an attraction to Jesus that is stronger than the daily distractions we do life with.

    Thank you sir for sharing.

  • Jide
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 8:41 am

    An attraction to Jesus that is stronger than the daily distractions we do life with.

    The pursuit of a good heart.

  • A.S
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 8:43 am

    Amen.

    May God help strengthen my attraction to his purpose.

    Thank you Pastor mi.

  • Ibk
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 8:58 am

    Our productivity and fruitfulness will look more like the condition of our heart than the opportunities and investment that God makes towards us. Thank you very much sir.

  • John
    Posted March 2, 2021 at 10:16 am

    Tremendously blessed! Thank you sir! This came in time.

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