At least once a year, we need to ask ourselves, are our lives “good soil” for the Word of God? (Matthew 13:3-9,18-23).

The beginning of a new year is a natural time for such reflections.

How do we recognize good soil? By the crops it produces.

In your yard, good soil produces the greenest grass, the prettiest flowers, the thickest shrubbery, and the healthiest trees.

In your life, good soil hears and understands the message about the Kingdom of Heaven, producing a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13:19,23).

In order to yield such an abundant crop for the Kingdom of Heaven, ask yourself about each part of your heart and your mind and your soul and your strength.

Why do we need to examine each part of our life?

Why do we need to study and be guided by all Scripture?

Why do we need to avoid studying and being guided solely by those verses of Scripture that we agree with because they help us find specks in other people’s eyes while justifying the planks in our own eyes? (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 7:3-5).

Why do we need to hear and understand the whole will of God—all the counsel of God—all the Wisdom of God? (Matthew 5:17-18; 7:24-28; Acts 20:27 NIV & KJV; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 8:1-20; Psalm 1:1-6; Psalm 19:1-14; Psalm 119:1-176; Proverbs 1:1-7).

We need to examine each part of our lives because we tend to think about only those parts of our lives that make us happy and proud—about only those parts of our lives in which we are already producing abundant crops for the Kingdom of Heaven.

We think about times we are generous. We forget times we are greedy.

We think about how attentive and kind we are to homeless people. But we forget how inattentive and unkind we are to our spouse and children.

We pat ourselves on our backs for how generous we are with our time and money in church and in politics. But we forget how selfish, stingy and miserly we are in business and in government.

We all tend to focus on the specks in other people’s eyes. We all tend to ignore the planks in our own eyes. (Matthew 7:3-5).

This is why it is good to be a member of a small group, especially a small group that speaks the truth to us in love as we study all Scripture. (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Why?

So that we become “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus [by] teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that [each] servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

The differing perspectives of people who speak the truth to us in love is essential so that we can discover the planks in our own eyes.

Friends speaking the truth to us in love will help us explore the answers to these kinds of questions:

Is the Word of God being snatched away before it can take root in some parts of our hearts or minds or souls or strengths?

Is the Word of God shriveling and dying in some parts of our hearts or minds or souls or strengths because of troubles or persecutions?

Is the Word of God being choked and becoming unfruitful in some parts of our hearts or minds or souls or strengths because of the worries of this life or the deceitfulnesses of wealths?

Is the Word of God producing an abundant harvest in our lives and in our civilizations because we have noble and good hearts, minds, souls, and strengths?

Are we hearing the Word of God—the message of the Kingdom of Heaven—retaining it, and persevering to produce an abundant crop of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23).

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To learn more about the Parable of the Sower that is the basis for this blog, please read the chapters “Despite His Family’s Wishes, Jesus Continues His Work”, “Jesus Tells the Parable of the Sower”, and “Jesus Feeds Five Thousand People” in my book Hoping in the LORD, at pages 123-148.

To learn more about how we need to be “good soil” so that we listen to understand instead being “hardened soil” so that we listen to argue, please read my blog “Deceptive-Drawings-Designed-To-Deceive-And-Divide” and my book Visions of America (published with my book Visions of the Church), at pages 35-37; 43-46; and 49-52.