Daily Worship

A Path

September 10, 2015 0 0

Mark 4:14,15

“The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.

Mark 4:14,15. A path is formed when someone chooses a route across a piece of ground. Others choose the same route and then it is followed repeatedly without much further thought. The ground is hard beaten and unyielding. No seed has a chance here, it disappears, food only for the birds.   For people like this the person of Jesus holds no interest. ‘I am not religious’ is their response. It is not that Christ’s message or his significance is rejected, it just never gets considered. People with this outlook would not be reading this page you would think, unless of course the target of Jesus’ teaching was the religious person, the one who thinks they are right in their beliefs, the one who is dutiful in their worship and regular in their prayers. The message of forgiveness and the spirit of love, the attitude of humility and the practise of serving others may get no traction here. Maybe it is ‘religion’ that tramples the ground of the human heart into a hardened narrow path. There are also those who simply do not engage in any spiritual encounter of the heart and mind, but they are as often inside churches as outside of them. 

PRAYER

Lord help me to look for myself in the challenging places of your teaching in case I fall or fail in your eyes.  
May the familiar patterns of my faith, the beliefs I have held over many years,
or my regular weekly routines of worship or prayer,
may these never be the hardening of the path that closes my heart and mind to the seed of your word for me today. 
I hold before you in prayer,  someone important to me who has no interest in or understanding of my faith. 
Help me to love, accept and support them just as they are recognising your love for them.