How Is Your Heart?

Thistlebend Quiet eMoment

by Laurie Aker

Focus Scripture: Luke 8:4-15 ESV

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people  
from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,  
5 “A sower went out to sow his seed.  
And as he sowed, some fell along the path  
and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.  
6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up,  
it withered away, because it had no moisture.
7 And some fell among thorns,  
and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”  
As he said these things, he called out,  
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets  
of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables,  
so that ‘seeing they may not see,  
and hearing they may not understand.’  
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.  
12 The ones along the path are those who have heard;  
then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts,  
so that they may not believe and be saved. 
13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word,  
receive it with joy. But these have no root;  
they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.  
14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear,  
but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares  
and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.  
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.
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Jesus continued on through the villages,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
People from town after town came to Him.
When he saw the large crowd He told them a parable.

Many were following Jesus.
Out of those who would listen
there were four different kinds of hearts:

Some fell along the path.

And some fell on the rock.

And some fell among thorns.

And some fell into good soil
and grew and yielded a hundredfold.

Jesus then called out to all of them saying:
“He who has ears to hear let him hear” (Luke 8:8).

Only those with one type of heart could truly hear.
Clearly there are those who don’t listen at all.
But of those who would listen, few would truly hear.

TAKING GOD’S WORD TO HEART

J. C. Ryle comments on this parable:
“It is a parable of universal application.
The things it relates are continually going on
in every congregation wherever the Gospel is preached.
…These factors should make us read the parable very carefully.
We should say to ourselves, as we read it,
‘This concerns me. My heart is seen in this parable.
I, too, am here.'”

Our heart is represented in one of these.
Ask the Lord this week to help you see
the condition of your heart.

MEDITATE or MEMORIZE

Write out the following verse from Luke 8 and recite it 3 times.
Take it with you throughout the day.

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.

PRAYER

Lord God, give me a heart that receives your Word
and produces much fruit.

In His hands for His glory,

Laurie
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New Beginnings

by Susan Sampson

After having been somewhat home bound the last couple of weeks, it was such a blessing to begin a new study and see all of you!  As I was praying the Lord blessed me with such a sweet picture of the body of Christ.  We are a family, sisters in Christ.  All the sisters gathering together each week to sit at their Father’s feet looking expectantly to hear from Him!

Maybe this is your first Thistlebend discipleship study, maybe your 10th!  Regardless, each of us is here by God’s grace for such a time as this.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that the Lord “chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”  In chapter 2 verse 13 he instructs us that we once were far off, but now have been “brought near by the blood of Christ.”  In the beginning of chapter 2 he explains the truth that we used to be “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).

“BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…” (Eph. 2:4-5).  

In Colossians the Word powerfully says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). 

The Lord saved us from the pit of destruction.  We were running our hell bound race and He reached out and rescued us!  “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:5).

We are now His people, His daughters, His ambassadors, His disciples.

We have been given such a gift in this study.  A new beginning.  A time to become “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29).  What are we going to do with this gift?  This gift of love?  What will we do in response to the Lord drawing us closer to Himself?  The flesh is going to want to resist!  Father, please give us ears to hear your voice and hearts to know your love and submit to your Word and put our flesh to death!

Lord, may your words during this study be as “frontlets between [our] eyes” (Deut 6:8) every day.  Enable us to take your truth to our hearts and humbly follow our great Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ!

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph. 3:17).  Father God, would you please quiet us by your love.  Enable us to turn from leaning on our own understanding and following our own desires and opinions and feelings and quietly follow you, our loving Father.

“Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain.  He washed it white as snow.”

May we join together as sisters in Christ and humbly ask the Lord to do a mighty work this semester in our hearts that only He can do.  And may we humbly trust Him by grace through faith, looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2, NIV) for He alone has loved us with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3).

 

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