Mark 4:16-17~And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.
The first thing to uncover from this scripture is the fact that the word is received with gladness. It sounds so good and its beautiful to the eye and appeasing to the soul. Then you become interested. But as the case will always be, the path for its growth is full of rubble. When the first stone hits your leg and that debt becomes so huge, and frustration creeps in due to mockery from peers. You might want to ask; “is this really worth it?”.
One of the desires of the devil is that you remain without root all through your life. Satan wants you to give up on everything when they get a little hard so that he can keep you floating. The desire to travail in obscurity is the hardest thing to accept. This is because at this point of your journey, nothing makes sense. It is never going to look as if you are going to make it.
Let me tell you what this situation is all about; it is like a conception of an idea. This idea might be anything worthwhile and in most cases may not involve how to get rich.
Ideas like ‘how to reduce the amount of red meat you consume, how to give more time to my prayer life, how to raise my children through constant morning devotion. This is going to give you the life you ever dreamed of but the reality is that you are going to pass through a lot of unforeseen obstacles.
To develop root, there are just few simple works to be done.
Firstly, you have to get your heart to be fertile. A fertile heart is able to wait for the word of God to find expression in it. The things that struggle for space with the word of God in your heart are things you can deliberately remove from your heart. These things always cause you to be in haste. They prevent you from the beauty of meditation.
Without the ability to meditate, the word of God or conception of any kind cannot find expression in your heart.
Secondly, make these meditations consistent. For this reason the image of the crown will continuously be your motivation. This will help you to lose sight of all obstacles. This has the power to neutralize jeers, blasphemy, peer pressure, persecutions of all kinds.
The last one is the establishment of faith. Nothing could be more important in establishing faith than prayer. Prayer is an act of humility and conformity to the word of God. We pray because we trust and believe in the word of God. Hebrews 11:6~And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him (in prayer) must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. This is the best way to tame afflictions.
It will be a thing of joy that we are not offended by any afflictions and persecutions, for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry~Habakkuk 2:3.
I pray that your heart be softened for the word of God to find a root expression in your heart.
