Fruit Only Comes from Deep Roots

In summary of Luke 8:13 it says, “The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don’t have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up.”

Bottom Line:

And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

What this means to me:

This verse reminds me that to be effective I can not only listen to the word and think “that’s great”, instead the word needs to permeate deep within; take root.  Its when trouble comes or times of testing that my endurance and faith has a chance to grow based on what’s deep inside.  This notion is very similar to the springtime in Southern California when everything turns green.  However when the rains stop, everything turns brown again.  This is because the quickly growing grass and wild flowers do not have any deep roots. They don’t go down deep enough to get water from beneath. When there aren’t deep roots, a plant may only look good for a while.  Luke 8:13 says, “The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don’t have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up” (CEV).  A lot of times I can hear God’s Word and get excited about it, but if I don’t allow it to change me, I’ll only kidding myself. To be effective I need to let the word sink into my life.  The best way to develop deep roots is to continue with a daily quiet time with God and to spend time in fellowship with others.  Not spending time with God on a daily basis will cause me to dry up and blow away when pressures come.  I know this to be true, as I took some time off of work recently and thus my daily routine and quiet time periods.  I easily got distracted and didn’t face a temptation well.  In addition, I need to make sure I take time to listen during my time with him. To just race through a quiet time and execute tasks is not enough. I need to sit and be quiet. I need to do whatever it takes to keep the focus on God. Also, being part of a regular fellowship group helps me with my perspective as others in the group can see things in my life that I can’t see.  I can learn from those in the group and help each other as we encourage each other and help our roots grow stronger.