If Jesus stood in front of you and said, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you…” Mark 4:11, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to hear and understand that? Sadly, most people don’t. Why? Because of the condition of their heart. The things they love, the things they think about all the time, the things they chase after, the things they think are important, the things they think other people think are important, the things they end up basing their entire life on – a.k.a. the condition of their hearts – take up so much of the capacity of their heart, desires, and attitudes that they don’t pursue the kingdom of God – even though Jesus tells us He has revealed it to us! Their heart is “hard” so that the Word of God can’t penetrate it. But it has been trained over time to be satisfied by the things of the world. How? In Mark 4:19, Jesus said that we have been led astray by 1) the worries of this life (past experiences that tempt us to focus on the giants in our lives instead of God’s omnipotent power to protect and sustain us), 2) the deceitfulness of wealth (present day possessions that give us a false sense of security and value) and 3) the desires for other things (spending our coming days chasing after the newest material possession to try to fulfill our desires and longings). Many people in the end will have nothing to show for their lives. And it’s mostly because they simply did not make time to read and study the Word, and hear it preached or taught, and make the Word the priority of their life, in order to crowd the other stuff out. Yes it is true – God loves us just as we are! But it is also true that He loves us too much to want us to stay there! For the sake of our earthly and eternal lives, as well as the Kingdom of God, begin today making a commitment to trust Him, pursue Him, and love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). Then we will gradually see a heart that is able to “accept the Word, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20). That is a fulfilled life!

Take time today to read Mark 4:1-20 and write down some ways to apply it to your life.