What do you think of yourself? Are you a person who willingly listens, a person seeking to understand? While someone is speaking, are you thinking about how you will answer or provide a counterpoint? Do you believe you are smarter than everyone else you encounter?
There are typically two types of people—those who think they are better than others and those who think everyone is better than they are. Rare is the person who can stand in the middle and provide an objective assessment of themselves and others. Jesus speaks of three types as well.
In His parable of the sower, Jesus speaks first of seed falling onto the path. This does not represent any type of person. The first type of person He speaks of is compared to rocky ground. They may believe what they heard immediately, but it doesn’t stick. Because it doesn’t take root, it quickly dries up, meaning the person has discarded it out of hand.
The second type of person is a person of thorns. They are worried about everything and are continually being led astray by the current fad, the latest worry, or simply what restaurant they will eat dinner at. The third type of person is good soil. They are the person who ingests what is being sown and pondering it. They seek to understand. They ultimately produce fruit from their understanding.
We are not all the same. Yet, we have some measure of control over what type of person we are. We can discard everything we hear, or everything we don’t want to hear, and remain the selfish person we are. We can worry far too much and never allow ourselves to simply believe and put it all in God’s hands. Or, we can choose to believe in God’s promises, trust he will deliver on them, and release our worries to him so we can produce the fruit he wants us to.
I pray we all know we can decide to be a person who seeks. I pray we choose to seek to understand God and his Word. I pray each one of us will produce the fruit God desires from us. Decide what type of person you will be. Choose to seek after God. Produce fruit for God.
Matthew 13:8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Marty Pressey 