February 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Mark 4:1–9

Devotional

A sower went out to sow and some fell on good ground, and yielded fruit. Each stalk brought forth fruit according to what it was able to bear. God’s Spirit causes each one of His children to bear fruit according to his or her strength. That is God’s unfathomable wisdom. The fruit is never too little and is never too much.

The thirty-fold fruit is beautiful; sixty-fold fruit is more beautiful. The most beautiful is the hundred-fold fruit because these stalks of grain bow the lowest. But they themselves do not know how much fruit they bring forth. On the contrary, more and more they experience their unfruitfulness. In fact, it would lead them to pride if they knew how fruitful they were.

The Heidelberg Catechism says that by the fruits of faith one is assured of his or her faith. But the observing of one’s fruits in life, apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, cannot culminate in a conclusion that spiritually all is well. The Holy Spirit judges the fruit in one’s life and gives to His children to see the reality of their salvation. Psalm 50:23 assures us that “to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

Where the seed has fallen into good ground, death can no longer do any harm. Through death the Lord will bring His own work home to be forever with Him. There will be an abundance of fruit in the heavenly barns. It will be as Psalm 72:16 says, “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon.” Then there will be no hardness, no stony ground, and no thorns whatsoever. The sower will no longer sow with tears because God will wipe all tears from the eyes, yes, all tears!

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.