THE SEED THAT WILL NEVER FAIL.
THE SEED THAT WILL NEVER FAIL.
I manage a garden centre amongst a whole lot of other things I do. A couple of years ago, a very dear friend of mine gifted me some lemon balm plants. She told me how she used them, she would pluck the leafs, let them dry out and then brew them for the most delicious cups of tea. They are highly fragrant as well. So I would brew my lemon balm tea with the dried out leaves and also drop a few leaves in my smoothies.
One day, I was having a conversation with another very dear friend of mine, who is resident in the United States but has been thinking of coming back to settle in Nigeria on her retirement. The only thing she feared was how to cope with mosquitoes and other insects. So I laughed and told her she would just have to include a hefty sum for insect repellant into her monthly housekeeping budget just like I did and that the sum just kept creeping up.
She asked why I did not seek out herbal or plant based alternatives for insect repellant instead of using the aerosol sprays which had side effects. I agreed and I began my search. And guess what? Top of the list on my search was the lemon balm plant my other friend had gifted me a few months before. What a coincidence! So I propagated the plants into planters and decided to put them at entry points into my home. Well nothing happened initially and I just gave up and continued to buy insecticide and brew my tea.
Then one day, my son’s nanny cut off a stem from one of the plants and we could almost hear the mosquitoes buzzing to get out of the door. Magic! I was so excited.
I bought more planters, more soil and some manure and propagated my lemon balm plants. I have been doing this for a while now and I no longer buy aerosol insecticide. I get to sell the plants too. (Remember to ring me up if you need any.):)
However, from my last propagation in December last year, one of the plants refused to grow. It just continued to wilt and rot away, while the others were growing and blooming. And eventually it died. I kept wondering what might have gone wrong and honestly I have no idea.
Dear friends, as a gardener I have seen some plants thrive and others fail under the very same conditions. Today, I come to tell you about a seed that can never fail. It is the incorruptible seed that is the Word of God. Following the parable of the sower, the bible tells us clearly that the seed talked about in that parable is the word of God. “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11 KJV It is just as simple as that.
“The seeds that were planted on good ground are people who also hear the word. But they keep it in their good and honest hearts and produce what is good despite what life may bring.” Luke 8:15 God’s Word Translation
When we read God’s Word, what do we do with it? Do we hold on to it, churn it over and over in our minds? Wake up with it? Go to bed with it? Eat it? Drink it? That is actually what we need to be doing for the seed of the Word to bear fruit in our lives. The above scripture in Luke 8:15 says if it is kept in a good heart, it will produce good fruit no matter what we face in life.
As much as I do not know how some of the lemon balm plants thrived and one did not; (though they were all treated the same way) so it is that I do not know how the Word of God grows and thrives in my life. What I do is to keep watering it by meditating on it and it continues to bear fruit. Fruit bearing does not happen over night. There is no length of time that is the right amount of time to meditate on any scripture but I just keep thinking deeply about it until it comes alive on the inside of me.
Let us do well to plant the seed of a scripture in our hearts today and let it replace anger, anxiety, bitterness, envy, fear, frustration, stress and worry.
Remember that we have been asked to guard our hearts with all diligence. “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4: 23 NLT
A guarded heart that allows only the seed of the Word of God to grow therein will bring forth an abundance of good fruit.
The Word of God never fails.
Let us plant it in our hearts today.
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©