Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
The Lord wants you bear much fruit for him. He wants you to cultivate a good and noble heart because it is the soil on which the word of God can grow and produce much fruit. The fruit God desires is godly character as well as people who you have rescued and helped to mature in Christ. In the spiritual agriculture of the Christian life, there is no problem with the seed because it is the word of God. It is perfect, powerful, and fully able to produce a rich yield. The concern is with the soil on which the seed of the word of God falls. A good soil will surely facilitate a bountiful harvest. But hard, shallow, or thorny ground can kill the seed or frustrate its potential so that the plant does not mature and produce fruit. For generations, my maternal family has been involved in farming. We have been planting rice, corn, coconut, and various fruit trees. We have been enjoying the fruit of the ground. Some of my happiest experiences as a child were in the farm with my family. One thing we have experienced though is that the amount of harvest is not always the same. How adequately we prepare the ground before planting rice, how well we water and fertilize the land, protect the plants from pests and devourers, and so on have a very big impact on the amount or quality of the harvest. The same principle is true in the spiritual life. May you and I cultivate the ground of our hearts well and maintain it adequately so that the seed of God’s word may find in it a suitable place for a rich and bountiful yield. Lathur Badoy