He That Hath Ears to Hear, Part III — Stony Ground

March 20, 2008, 1:30 am; posted by David
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Are you in a pattern in your life where you start well, but never finish? Is the cycle of your walk with God one of repentance, proclamation, and good intentions — but at the end of the day, no apparent progress? Does no work of God in your life last very long before you again backslide and run from God?

This is what Jesus addresses in the next section of our parable — “the seed that fell on stony ground,” those with no root who wither away when trouble or persecution comes.

What keeps the Word from sinking down and developing strong roots? The problem is what’s below the surface — the hidden rock, the obstacle that keeps us from doing business with God. The only reason for a root not to progress to a deeper place to nourishment and water is the interposition of something immovable and unyielding.

What are you hiding? What are you afraid of? Moving this object will not be as horrible as you think.

God loves you. Anything that He requires of you in exposing sin — your own or perhaps another’s — will only be a blessing. He has no desire to harm you, but some things cannot be healed until they are exposed to the light, so that they can be killed.

In the famous tract, My Heart, Christ’s Home, the writer compares salvation to literally turning his house over to Jesus. Jesus strolls through it, looking at the library, workshop and other rooms — and many changes have to be made. It turned into a horror story for me when Jesus found the hall closet and commented on the stench emanating from it. The writer was put off by the request to clean out that dark little closet, so Jesus turned around to leave, saying, “I’ll be out on the front porch. I can’t stay in a place that smells like this.” The writer relented, and he was finally freed from the secret sins he had buried in that small dark place.

I recently saw a news story about a 29-year-old youth pastor who came forward to confess that he had killed a man at 16, before he was saved. He had been hiding it for 13 years. I can’t imagine the courage this required, but I too have been in the place where I’ve said to God, “No! I can’t dig this up! It’s too deep! It’s too messy! Everyone will see it and the scar it leaves on the ground! You can’t ask this of me!”

He can ask, though, and He does. And if we refuse to yield, the growth — the relationship — is over, until we relent and let Him move the thing that lies hidden, below the surface.

But I promise you: it always brings joy and indescribable peace when it’s accomplished.