What kind of heart does our Heavenly Father desire for each one of us? Jesus shed light on the answer to this question when He described the fourth soil in His Parable of the Sower. The “good” soil was soft (Matthew 13:8), and it received a divinely multiplied blessing: “It produced a crop, a hundred sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:8). Jesus equated this earthly truth with the spiritual: “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:23).

A soft heart is open to the seed, or the word, Christ sows and humbly receives it through the Holy Spirit’s cultivation (see James 1:21). Luke’s account of the same parable includes “noble” for the description of a soft, humble, and open heart (see Luke 8:15). Notice Jesus gave three characteristics of the person’s heart that is like soft soil. He or she: (1) hears the word, (2) understands the word, and (3) produces much fruit, which is changed lives. These traits flow from humility toward our Heavenly Father who desires to produce them in each one of us: “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

If your heart is soft, go. Hear the expression of Christ. Understand His message through the Holy Spirit’s discerning. Produce the fruit of changed lives that God has in store for you in Christ.

Episode 249: Parable of the Sower from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.