The Word Heard

and effective in your heart

Scripture Reading: Luke 8:4-15

              Wilhelm Loehe prayed, Let not Satan rob our hearts of the word which we have heard. Let not the cares of this life stifle its power, not let that which we have heard unto our salvation become unto us, in any manner, a word of condemnation.

              The Lord’s Day, when we gather with God’s people, when the word of God is read and preached and taught and sung is a day of possibility and peril. That word is like a seed. And that seed has the potential to sprout and grow and produce fruit in and around us, now and extending on into eternity.

              There is peril as well. Dangers abound. Satan is swooping in where he can to snatch away the seed. If possible, before the last hymn is sung, before the benediction is given, he will steal the seed. There is a peril that you might have lost any possible good thing before you close your care door and drive out of the parking lot. If that doesn’t thwart the work of God, trials may come by which you are offended, and the seed which sprouted dies before it has lived long enough to do its good. Then, if perhaps the seed survives those attacks, it may be that you will foolishly try to grow the seed in the fields of the world. There the world’s weeds will suck up all that might have given the word life in your heart and it will be choked out and die.

So, pray today. Pray as Loehe prayed. Seek the mercy and grace of God that the implanted word will find your heart good soil. That the Lord will protect from all of these perils. And that the word will fulfill all the glorious possibilities it presents today