Overcoming guilt day nine

The Bible talks about a sower that went out to sow his seed. The seed is God's word and the field is the heart of the hearer. Our hearts are like plantations, and the words that we hear are the seeds. The Bible says that there are also different kinds of hearts in mankind. There is the trodden down heart (hard and stubborn), the stony heart (shallow and immature), the thorny heart (heavy weighted by the cares of life), and the good heart ( soft and tender that is able to receive the seed (the word) of God. When we feel like we have failed with our children we sometimes will try to fix it later on in life when they are adults. Sometimes our methods only make matters worse. We will talk more about all four kind of hearts that Jesus identified, but for now we will talk about the stony hearted person.

The second kind of person are those with the stony hearts. Jesus said in the parable of the sower that those with stony hearts are those who receive the word (whereas the hard hearted person rejected it from the very first) but the dirt was rocky and their wasn't any room for the roots to go down, so the seeds didn't grow or produce fruit. The soil represents our hearts. The stony hearted person has a heart that is already full. The heart is so full of their own ideas, and opinions there is no room for God's Word to root down. There is just too many rocks in the soil and there is no longer any room for roots to go down into the soil. If you have done any farming, you know that the soil has to be really rocky before a plant can't find a place to root downward. The parable that Jesus told about the stony ground (the stony hearted person) says that the roots did go downward, but then hit rock, so the roots didn't get very deep or get grounded. That would be fine, except that a plant can't grow with shallow roots. The roots didn't go deep, so the hot sun came out and the plant withered up and did not produce it's fruit. A plant will get water through the roots going down deep into the earth to tap into underground moisture.

Why didn't the roots go down? The roots hit rock. We have our own ideas, so the Word of God can't take root in us. The ideas that we have that are contrary to the word of God are like rocks in our hearts. Some people have the idea that they can drink and do drugs as long as they don't hurt anyone but themselves. That is a rocky heart. Some people have the idea that they can sin and do whatever they please and they will still be OK with God because they were once saved. That is a rocky heart. Some people have the idea that as long as they are basically a good person they will be OK with God. That is a rocky heart. These are just some of the ROCKS in peoples hearts, there are many more. Anything that we believe contrary to God's Word ends up being a rock in our hearts that keeps God's word from being grounded in our hearts.

You may think, 'well what is the big deal, everyone it entitled to their own opinion.' While that is true, it is not our opinions that set us free it is the Word of God that sets us free. What is the fruit of God? Love, patience, kindness, long suffering, goodness, thankfulness...note that envy, jealousy, guilt and anguish is not mentioned as the fruit of God. Most people want the fruit of God. Who wouldn't want a life of love, patience, kindness, long suffering, goodness, thankfulness, yet so many people don't have these things in their lives as much as they would like to have them. This is a free country in America. If this is a free country than who is stopping us from having these things? We can pretty much have what we want can't we, it is a free country. Having opinions and beliefs that are contrary to God's Word is like having a rock in your heart. Not only does a rock keep the Word of God from penetrating our lives and producing this good fruit, but it also is heavy. Having a stony heart will make you heavy hearted.

We all like to be around light hearted people, and truly most people would like to be light hearted. Many people today are heavy hearted. Have you ever been in a relationship with someone and it seemed like that person was just a heavy weight? Often when people are a burden to us they will have a comeback for all the things that they do that really weighs on us. For instance you ask, " Why don't you take some responsibility instead of sitting in front of the TV getting drunk all the time" The typical response of a stony hearted person. "I had to work today, why won't you ever give me a few minutes to sit down and relax?" They fail to realize that the person asking the question is up working themselves to make up for their partners need to relax in the evening. What a heavy person to have to carry through life. The heart is stony, they believe they have the right to drink a beer and relax, even if their partner has to do the majority of the chores. That was just one example of the stony hearted person.

Most of the time the stony hearted person is very selfish, this is the main reason why their hearts are so heavy. While being selfish might make us feel good that we got to do what we wanted, in the end selfishness makes us feel rotten in side. When you have a loved one that has a stony heart that is so full of their own ideas and opinions you will have to deal with their selfish attitudes. This person may want to do the right thing. When you talk to them they may actually promise you to do better, or to improve. Don't get your hopes up. The words you speak will take root just like in the parable, and you may actually see them do better for a while. In the parable the word took root, but the roots couldn't go down. It hit that rock. Don't expect that your loved one is truly ever going to change their actions until they change their opinions and attitudes, and that means more than acknowledging that they need to do better.

The only way to get rocks out of the soil is to break up the rock and then pitch it out of the field. Pray that God would break up those beliefs and opinions that are contrary to His Word so that the Word of God can penetrate the heart, with roots going downward and fruit coming upward.