My Heart, My Betrayer

(LUKE 8:5-15)
Parable is seemingly Jesus’ preferred method of teaching. Each of Jesus’ parable is an ocean of divine knowledge and spiritual truth. The parable of the sower is one of such. This parable contain an amazing truth that is fundamental to spiritual well-being of every Christian and at the same time opened to faulty interpretation because of the use of the agricultural images. The sower is seen scattering seeds, the seeds are seen falling on different soil and the yield are equally different. This means that the yield of the seeds is the function of the soil on which they fall. From the agricultural point of view, every sower sows with positive expectation, anticipating a bountiful yield, thus the sower is some-how absolved from the blame occasioned by the low performance of the seeds depending the ground it fell. 

Let us beam our search-light on Jesus’ interpretation of this parable. The seed is the word of God (Luke8:11ff), invariably the different ground on which the seeds fell described the posture of our hearts in receiving the word. Four posture of the hearts is here represented. One is the PATH-HEART: the path-heart hears the word but will not believe it. The devil seat strongly on this heart, earnestly watching for any drop of God’s word in order to drive it away and discourage the heart from believing. As long as the devil remain as the chief watchman of this heart no word of God can successfully perch on it. The devil doesn’t want this heart to be saved and will stop at nothing to remain in charge.  “….for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage”. 2 Peter 2:19. This heart has been wilfully surrendered to Satan to be in control. You remember how Adam gave up his authority to Satan at the Eden to obey him and do his will because he has a free-will to choose. This is the most pathetic of all the hearts.

The second is the ROCKY HEART: this heart is quite unlike the first, it believes for a while, it has a joyful disposition towards the word but in the face of trial, persecution and storms of life it quickly forgets what the word is, and what it says. People in this categories are fair-weather Christians. The word of God only make sense when the going is good. They forget that the word must be tried. “And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” Ps 12:6. The word of God is rooted in our hearts through crisis. Our trials are a testing ground for the word of God, if our hearts has no room for the word during crisis, it will never do any other time. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”  John 12:24. There must be a time of dying with the word if it must bring fruit, if we can’t die with the word, we cannot live with the word. “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4.

The third is the THORNS HEART: the thorns heart is an unsettled heart that allow too much external influence, it seems to be driven by the forces of the environment. Though has the word, will never allow the word to take its cause. It is moved by what it sees or hears and by the situation around it. What God says doesn’t matter if the circumstances around is not favourable. This heart walk by sight not by faith. The disposition of this heart varies according to the prevailing circumstances. As long as it is satisfied with sensual pleasure, it has no room to nurture the word to growth and maturity.
 

The fourth is the NOBLE AND GOOD HEART: this heart is an ideal for the word of God, it is a willing and a prepared heart, it is not preoccupied with external interest, it is a yielding heart. It understands the productive, creative and saving power of God’s word. Like Simon Peter, this heart will cry, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” This heart is not ready to be shot against God’s word, it sees salvation coming from nowhere else than the word of God, it is not ashamed of the word, it is ready in season and out of season to hear and do the word. You can see from the people of Berea that Apostle Paul preached to in Acts of Apostle. “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.  Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”(Acts 17:11-12). The Bereans were such a wonderful people compared to the Thessalonians. They have a good hearts and the word produced fruit among them because they were willing.
 

Christians today are confronted with only one problem, the betrayal of our hearts. Outside our hearts, we have no problem. We have with us an ocean of divine wealth and health in the word of God. Many days, these words are scattered by the sower but our hearts would always betray us. The heart is the seat of emotion, the control centre of all our decisions, unfortunately, we are the one driving the hearts. You see, that is where we exchange affection; we give and receive love. No one decides for us what we love or hates, it is simply the decision of our hearts, here we shot things out and let others in, here also we give priority to certain things and treat others casually.
 

Many great exploits in the bible and Christendom began as the seed of the word received in the hearts, the nation of Israel was a seed received of the word of God by Abraham, nurtured and persevere unto manifestation. “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. (Rom 4:17-22). The word of God is the foundation of everything, seen and unseen. Everything our hearts desire is in the word. There is no becoming without the word, all that existed began as the seed of the word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John1:1-3). 

If everything derives its existence in the word, then our joy, marriage, offspring, job, success, promotion, good health and freedom is tight to the word which implies that our becoming of anything must begin as the seed of the word but a seed must be given a good ground to grow in order to bring forth fruits. It therefore means that the word of God spoken to us carries potential for anything visible that we can imagine but many times this word suffer miscarriage in our hearts, it is not given a good ground to grow, many times its comes through intense competition with other attractions and rival, it is overwhelmed by external influence, birds of pleasure and worries eat it up before it sprouts. 

Sometimes it appears as though God is not faithful or answer prayers or no longer perform miracles but the truth is that those spoken words that produced miracles then were treasured in the hearts. You remember the ten lepers that Jesus told to go and present themselves to the Priest, the bible says as there were going, they became healed. They first received the word, they moved in confident though there was no sign of healing at first, but healing showed up as soon as the word takes a root in their hearts, and they became cleansed. Our hearts is the incubator of God’s word. If it lacks the require temperature, the word dies. God said to Joshua, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Josh 1:8)

Meditation is the work of the hearts, it involves ruminating. It implies giving deep thought to the word. It is a process by which the word gain root in the hearts and it is ready to break forth with result. Through mediation, the heart is preoccupied with the word and become rooted and strong against every external influence. 

With this we know that God is absolved of any blame arising from the ineffectiveness of God’s word amongst us. Our hearts, because if its deep affection to other things, will not allow us experience the power of God’s word. A good and a noble heart, is a united heart, focus and fixed on what God is saying and will persevere through every circumstance in yielding to the word. Beloved, we are the only person to set ourselves free from this betrayer, our hearts, by regulating what it loves, treasured and willing to die for. Christianity is the matter of the heart, where our treasure is, that is where our hearts is. Let’s give God our heart and we shall not recount what great a blessings it is to do so.
 

By Iniobong Enyetip