Audacious Love is Generous

by | Oct 3, 2017 | Faith | 0 comments

This year’s Thrive Conference is a celebration of God’s audacious love: What it looks like, how it overcomes our greatest fears, and how it inspires us. We’re thrilled to announce that, in conjunction with the conference, we’ll be releasing a NEW devotional! On this 31-day devotional journey, you’ll discover the meaning, power, and purpose of God’s audacious love—and be inspired to share it with the world. Want a sneak peek? Join us from now until the conference as we reveal snippets each week—this week’s article is from Becky Meyerson, and talks about God’s generosity to us. And don’t forget to join us for the Thrive Conference!

“A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath. . . Other seed fell among the rocks. . . Other seed fell among thorns. . . Still other seed fell on fertile soil. . . This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.” (Luke 8:5a, 11, NLT)

One summer during a family vacation we visited the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) at Montana State University. It holds the country’s largest collection of North American dinosaur fossils from discoveries made in and around Montana.

As we walked through the rooms filled with T. Rex specimens and met “Big Al,” one of the most complete Allosaurus dinosaurs ever discovered, we came upon a group of people listening to a gentleman telling a personal story of discovery. He was a local farmer, and one spring as he was inspecting his fields prior to plowing them for spring planting, he noticed something protruding out of the dirt. Upon closer inspection, he realized this was not the usual rock or debris that works its way to the surface each spring. This was a very large bone. The researchers from MOR were called and excavated a dinosaur that had finally worked its way to the surface.

Luke 8 tells the story of a farmer who continues to plant seeds even when the soil is hardened from being walked on, filled with rocks, or weedy. This generous farmer is God and the seed he continues to faithfully plant in our lives is the Word of God.

Because of his audacious love, God has chosen to be gracious and even unconditional as he generously scatters the seed in the soil of our heart. As we meditate on God as the farmer sowing seeds in our life, our hearts should be overwhelmed with his grace and kindness. Deep in the soil of our life may lurk a dinosaur of unforgiveness, anger, disappointment, or unbelief. And bones, debris, rocks, and weeds have a way of eventually finding their way to the surface. Yet God’s audacious love is generous and he never stops planting his Word in our life.

Each day, we are given an abundance of opportunities to hear God’s Word through sermons, podcasts, devotionals, radio, books, live stream and more. It is a sobering thought to think that our heart may not be ready to receive the Word. Each of us know there are moments and seasons when the soil of our heart is hardened with unbelief, filled with rocks of anger, or weedy with worry and cares. Still God repeatedly scatters the seed of his Word, filled with purpose, hope, healing, freedom, encouragement, and growth. What a loving, bountiful God we serve!

Reflect and Respond:

Do you have a dinosaur hidden in the soil of your heart? Can you sense that it is pushing its way to the surface?

Do you allow weeds of worry choke out the Word of God that you hear every day?

How can the truth of God’s audacious, generous love help his Word take root so you can “produce a crop that is a hundred times as much as had been planted”? (Luke 8:8, NLT)

Father, what a generous God you are. Thank you for the abundance of seed that you sow into my life. I invite you to come and show me the condition of the soil of my heart. I want my heart to be able to receive every Word from you and produce a harvest in my life that is a hundred-fold.

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