Mark 4:3-8
“Listen. What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled among the weeds and nothing came of it. Some fell on good earth and came up with a flourish, producing a harvest exceeding his wildest dreams.”
“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
These are hard words to read when you have someone in your life whose faith is growing cold. The only thing to do is throw oneself upon God’s mercy on their behalf and pray. Their blindness to their own faltering faith translates into blindness in other directions too. We can trust God to give them every opportunity to return to him, and must rest in that. Still, it is hard.
Lord you know the ones I am worried about. Show me how to pray for them. Keep prodding to get their attention. Give me faith to keep praying.