Walk with me for a moment.

The Parable of the Sower, often called the parable of the seed and soil, is primarily about how the gospel message (the seed) is received and grows within different hearts (the soils). However, it also carries broader implications about God’s Word and the kingdom of heaven.

Today, let’s look at it in a different way🧐.

Matthew 13:

18-19: “Listen to this story about the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears about the kingdom but doesn’t take it to heart, it remains on the surface. Then the Evil One comes along and takes it right out of their heart. This is the seed that falls on the road.”

20-21: “The seed sown in the gravel represents someone who hears the message and immediately responds with excitement. But there’s no depth of character, so when the emotions fade and difficulties arise, nothing comes of it.”

22: “The seed sown among thorns represents someone who hears the message, but the worries of life and the pursuit of wealth choke it out, and nothing comes of it.”

23: “But the seed sown in good soil represents someone who hears and understands the message, and produces a crop—yielding a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”

Have you ever found yourself confronted with the need to change? You recognize your need for repentance, experience forgiveness, and feel a strong determination to improve. You’re fully on board—you make promises to yourself, your loved ones, and to God, declaring, “I WILL CHANGE.” Your response is full of enthusiasm.

It’s also a lot of emotions—feeling sad, bad, humbled, embarrassed, and possibly ashamed.

But what happens after that is just as important, if not more so, than the initial repentance and acknowledgment of the need for change.

God recently brought me to my knees over some hard things I needed to repent for. Okay, I’ll share with you…😒

I had been disrespectful to my husband and kept making excuses for it after he confronted me about it. This wasn’t the first time, either.

God showed me why I felt the need to behave this way and showed me that it was not acceptable.

But that is not what this post is about… Phew!😅 (See my marriage series linked below).

What I want to focus on is what happened in the days that followed. After repentance, things “calmed down,” so to speak. But then what? The honest truth is that, normally, I would just forget about it and move on until the next time—and there was always a next time.

When I read these verses above, I felt deeply convicted.

I’m enthusiastic about making changes, but after a period of calm, I stop caring. Then, when it gets difficult again, the cycle repeats. I fall back into the familiar pattern that keeps repeating over and over until it’s a blowout.

Did my need to repent land on gravel rather than good soil? When the next opportunity arises for me to behave the same way, will I have nothing to show for what God has done—or at least what He tried to do? When the emotions wear off, and I no longer feel sorry or embarrassed, the motivation to follow through becomes much less urgent.

But this time was different. I felt such deep sorrow for how I was hurting both the Lord and my husband that not changing was no longer an option. My character needed to change. The conviction finally took root in good soil. My heart is determined to live the way I promised—honoring both God and my husband. I don’t know how to do it, but that is no excuse. I am determined and have followed up with conversations and questions, and a determination to pursue this much-needed change.

It’s interesting how many times our hearts are not good soil. We make surface-level vows and commitments—“I’ll do better, I’ll change this or that”—but once the emotions wear off, and the feelings that once fueled our promises fade, we begin to feel like we’re off the hook. We think we’re excused.

But God doesn’t excuse us. Sin is sin. Conviction is not just for a season until the feeling fades—it’s meant to sustain us through difficulty, through testing, through the lies and deceit of the enemy, through hurt, wounds, and fears. It’s meant to endure, and our character must stand firm on the promises we made to the Lord.

How is your soil?

When we read this parable, those of us who know the Lord are often relieved and thankful that we were good soil to receive the Gospel… but do we remain that way? Consider the conditions of your heart and give yourself a reality check when you’re confronted with the need to change. Only you can do the changing. Ask your best friend or spouse about it:

Am I all talk? Am I all promises with no change?

And the final verse contains a wonderful promise: “The seed sown in good soil is the one who hears and understands the message and produces a crop—a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”

We are capable of receiving and producing a harvest beyond our wildest dreams if we trust the Lord and have the character to follow through, making the changes we know we need to make.

Maybe (quite possibly) you are the missing link in this “fruitful harvest” that is waiting to happen… in marriage, in your ministry, in your family, in your career, in your relationships, in your personal growth.

Go, GIRLS!! We can be women who hear the news (no matter how hard it is to hear) and, through God’s strength, produce a harvest because of it!

Let me know what you think about this post in the comments!

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