Unload!

“Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.” Matthew 13:7

This well known Parable of the Sower and the Seed teaches us many things. The Word is seed and only the seed which falls on good soil will bear much fruit. Perhaps we read the Bible and pray in the morning, but during the day, the cares and burdens of the day suffocate the Word. We do not stop to praise God for the good, and lift up our challenges. We do not stop for some quiet time to see our day and the people who bother us with God’s eyes. Irritation and anger comes in, even gossip. The seed has no chance to grow amidst these “thorns”.

In a little town in Russia a long time ago, women would have to carry their huge baskets on their shoulders to bring to the market to sell. They walked a long way and it was very hard work. We can imagine how happy they were when they built train tracks through their little town. They would be able to ride the train to market. On the first day the train passed through, the women waited at the station. Alas! they could not fit their huge baskets in through the train entrance. They tried carrying the baskets on their side, their back, on top of them, but they could not fit it in. “Ladies!” the conductor said, “To enter, you have to unload!”

The same way with us. Sometimes we are overloaded with our bags and packages of busyness, worries, quarrels, misunderstandings, unforgiveness and pains. Jesus said He is willing to take our burdens from us (Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 55:22, Isaiah 58:6, 1 Peter 5:6-7 and many more). Let us unload our burdens on Jesus and we will be free to plant seed in the rich soil of our hearts and bear fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty fold.