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Feb 13, 2023 18:30pm

Keep Planting the Seeds

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A friend of mine recently sought out a teacher of his to thank for being so instrumental in his life. This teacher believed in him, encouraged him and invested in this young man. Years after being in the classroom with this teacher, he felt the need to thank her for helping him be successful.

Maybe you have a teacher like that, too? Someone that invested a great deal of time in you and you know, without a doubt, you wouldn’t be where you are without their guidance.

Or perhaps, you’re the teacher.

Being a teacher comes without a lot of thanks. This one young man that reached out was probably 1 out of 1,000 the teacher had invested in. To the young man, that teacher was successful and important! To the teacher, they may have looked at the situation and considered it dismal.

“Look at how many I have taught that did not succeed. Look at how many I’ve invested in and they’ve turned away, they’ve chosen another way of life, they aren’t following the things I shared with them.”

But what if the teacher focused on the one that did?

In Mark 4, Jesus teaches a large crowd about a farmer planting and the 4 soils.

“Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.” (Mark 4: 3-8)

You could focus on the seed that was scattered and never grew, or the ones that started but withered away, but what about the ones that are fruitful? What about those seeds? There is much success here and worthy to be praised!

Preachers, teachers, disciple-makers, leaders in the church- what a great reminder for us all.

Believe me, I understand the heartache and the hurt. You’ve invested so much in them and they’ve completely turned away. They are following the things of this world; they aren’t doing any of the things they learned in scripture. Their life looks nothing like Christ, and you weep. Bitterly. Because deep down you think, I must have done something wrong. I must have messed up somehow. And then the enemy really attacks – maybe I’m not qualified to do this anymore. Maybe I never was. Look at these people? I’ve taught them to love Jesus and follow Him and now they have gone another way…

But what about those that did listen? What about those that did grow in His word, those that have now become a part of the church, are working for and serving the Lord and leading others to Christ?

Jesus said it would happen. There are all types of people- some that are just there for the good stuff. When the going gets tough, they’re gone. When the world offers them something they think is better, they choose it over Jesus. Or those that heard the word but never cared to understand it. They never had a desire towards the Lord.

But then, there are those that are truly interested and open to God. The seed you plant, the growth you water, all of that matters.

Don’t let the enemy distract you from your purpose. Keep teaching. Keep leading. Keep discipling. Keep preaching. Keep encouraging.

Keep planting the seed.