Do you ever lack motivation to pray? Perhaps you feel like your prayers are not being heard, or you feel as though you fall short on understanding when you read your Bible, and your thoughts come up void. Well take heart you are not alone. We all experience a variety of seasons throughout our Christian walk and what I just described, this dry spout, is called the “desert experience.”
Years ago when my husband had only been saved a couple of years I remember him sharing with me how dry he felt in his spirit, and how he wasn’t retaining or seeing any benefit from reading the word of God. I did my best to encourage him to persevere, pray, and trust the Holy Spirit to give understanding, and to reveal the scriptures to him.
Months had past, and then one day he came home from work excited to tell me about his experience he had earlier that day. A coworker had presented a question she had about the Bible and my husband said, “Suddenly out of nowhere I began to recall scriptures. I was able to answer her question, and minister to her. I know it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me because I can’t remember what I had said.”
My husband was not only amazed that he had the capability to answer his coworker with accuracy and speed, but he was also blessed and filled with joy knowing the wisdom had come from the Holy Spirit and he was able to see the fruit from his perseverance.
The bible compares reading the word of God to a “Growing Seed,” in Mark 4:26-29 Jesus tells a parable; “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
In the parable of the Growing Seed, Jesus tells of a man who scatters seed on the ground and then allows nature to take its course. As the man goes about his business day after day, the seed begins to take root. Then it sprouts and produces a stalk, leaves, then a head of grain, and finally fully develops into kernels at the head. All of this happens without man’s help.
The seed symbolizes the Word of God, as in Mark 4:14, we can interpret the growth of the plants as the working of God’s Word in individual hearts. Just as the crop grows without the farmer’s intervention so does God accomplish His purposes even when we are absent or unaware of what He’s doing. The goal is the ripened grain. At the proper time, the Word will bring forth its fruit, and the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:2) will be glorified.
To summarize the point of the Parable of the Growing Seed: “The way God uses His Word in the heart of an individual is mysterious and completely independent of human effort.” May we be faithful in “sowing the seed,” praying for a harvest, and leaving the results to the Lord!
(Recommended Resource: Parable of Jesus by James Montgomery Boice)
My husband’s experience that day with his coworker is proof that God’s word is not only true, but active and alive, (Hebrews 4:12). God rewards those who diligently seek Him, (Hebrews 11:6). So don’t give up your on reading and praying, they are not done in vain.
