Thursday after the Seventh Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 18, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Mark 4:26-29 (NKJV)
4:26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately she puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Devotion
Our Lord makes us part of His kingdom through faith, by the power of His Spirit. As He does so, He uses us to confess His Word and do the righteous works that He prepares for us. By such things He spreads the seeds of His Gospel, so that sinners may hear and understand, grow up in true faith, and be gathered with all His people. The cycles of nature and farming show us a wonderful example of the greater spiritual truth of this cyclical work of His holy kingdom.
Our Savior also makes the point in this parable that the man who works to spread the seed does not necessarily know how the seed will sprout and grow. As workers and servants in Christ’s kingdom, it is not our place to know or judge all things. It is our place to observe His commands, do the work, and trust that He is the one who has all power and knowledge. There is comfort for the faithful in this! If things seem to go well, we thank God that He has brought the increase and that our sins have not messed things up! If things seem to go badly, then we pray that He make all things work together for good according to His will and that He forgive us for our sins that might have messed things up! This is why He teaches us to pray, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” Amen!
Collect: O God, Whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: We humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
