In school my children participated in a gardening class. They helped prepare the soil and sow the seeds. However, this was not a onetime activity. They would go out faithfully to take care of the garden by watering it and removing weeds or destructive bugs. Because we lived in an area that had warm weather most of the year, they would even plant other seeds throughout the season to yield different produce at different times.
They enjoyed watching their seeds sprout and grow, and they learned about how much potential for growth one tiny seed had. Additionally, as their plants matured and their produce became ready to harvest, these “sowers” got to reap the benefits of their work by having a meal together.
This reminds me of how we tend to God’s Word in our lives. We sow seeds of truth in our hearts and enjoy growing spiritually and reaping the benefits. Two key ways we can sow the Word in our lives to help ourselves grow are faithfully reading the Word and committing scriptures to memory.
Faithfully reading God’s Word is a simple and effective way to grow spiritually. By consistently sowing seeds of truth, we can expect to grow in our confidence and knowledge of God’s will for various life situations. By reading, we learn who God says we are, what God says we have, and what God says we can do because of the power that He has made available to us.
Ephesians 1:18,19:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.
Reading the Word is more than just recognizing printed words on the pages of a Bible. It involves meditating on, considering, and giving thought to the meaning of those words.
I Timothy 4:13,15:
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
We give ourselves wholly to the doctrine by immersing ourselves in the truth and reflecting on what God says. We consider the godly actions we are to take in our lives. As we do, our profiting will appear to all. We will receive the benefits of consistently and faithfully sowing the Word in our hearts.
Another way we can sow the Word to see growth in our lives is by committing verses to memory, deliberately memorizing scriptures. Our minds are designed by God to hold His Word so we can recall it whenever we want.
Psalms 119:11,15,16:
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Memorizing scriptures is how we hide God’s Word in our hearts. Keeping the Word we have memorized fresh in our minds is how we meditate on it and delight in it. We don’t forget it. The seeds of the Word we sow will help us grow and eventually produce fruit in our lives.
One benefit of memorizing scriptures is being able to confidently recall the Word that we need to succeed in life’s situations. Jesus Christ retained the Word of God in his mind. When challenged, he responded with “It is written,” quoting Old Testament scriptures he had studied. He was able to overcome and prevail when faced with challenges by quoting the Word he had committed to memory and applying it to each situation. We can be like Jesus Christ by being ready with the Word we have sown in our minds. We can recall those seeds of truth when we need them for life situations that come up.
Just as growing food in a garden requires sowing seeds, growing spiritually requires us to sow seeds of truth from God’s Word in our minds. We can expect that the more bountifully we sow seeds of truth, the more bountiful the increase will be.
II Corinthians 9:6:
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
By reading God’s Word so we understand how to live it and by memorizing scriptures so we can recall the Word in any situation, we are sowing God’s seeds of truth that will produce fruit in our lives.