You know, all those
headache remedies promise fast relief of course, but they all actually
take time--even the best of them, whichever one that is. I mean, can you
imagine someone with a headache and they take two aspirin, and immediately
they say, "Nothing happened! My head still hurts. This stuff is bogus!" So
they pop three more. In five minutes this person says, "I've still got a
headache!" So they pop several more.
Now, pretty soon this person is going to be in trouble. You want to step
in there and say, "Stop! You're going to hurt yourself if you keep this
up!" And they say, "Yes, but I took the aspirin and nothing happened."
Well, of course, you're going to come back and say, "Well, you have to
wait for the result. You've got to give the medicine some time!"
Or imagine if you're taking penicillin. You take the dose that the doctor
prescribed and you wait five minutes. You still have a fever, you still
have a sore throat, you're still sick. So, you say, "Oh, nuts! I'm going
to take the whole bottle!" No, no, no! This is not advisable! I'd hate to
even think what would happen. You see we've learned to wait for a healing
effect before we use any more medicine. If we don't, well we're going to
cause an even greater problem. That's especially true when you're treating
someone you really love.
As you look into Mark 4:26-29, I want you to think about someone you are
personally concerned about right now: a child, maybe a parent of yours, or
a brother or sister, a close friend. And you've told them your concerns
about them, and you've told them, and told them, and told them. And they
still haven't changed. They're proceeding down a road that you're afraid
will not lead to a headache, but to a heartache.
It could be that you're missing a vital step in the process of confronting
people with the truth, and here's where we go to Mark 4:26. It's an
agricultural passage really. "Jesus said, 'This is what the kingdom of God
is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he
sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how.
All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head,
then the full kernel in the head. And as soon as the grain is ripe, he
puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.'"
Now, Jesus is saying that the farmer has the job of scattering seed. Then
he re-enters the process when the seed is bearing fruit. But in between,
look what the farmer does. He backs off. He gives the seed time to
germinate. Now, if he goes over, digs it up, keeps looking at it, tampers
with it, "Hey, I wonder if this thing's growing? I don't see anything
happening," he's going to kill the growth. Jesus is telling us, "Give
truth time to work, and quit panicking because it doesn't seem to be
growing right away." It's like that medicine. Give the people you love a
dose of God's truth, but then settle back and let it take effect, and in
the meantime pray for that seed to germinate.
When we're concerned about someone we love, we tend to push them too much.
We actually delay their ever coming to grips with the truth. We push them
right away. They don't seem to be listening, so we say it too loud, too
long, and too often. The more doses we try to force on them, we make them
spit out the medicine that might change their life.
Truth requires time to germinate. It looks like nothing is happening, but
don't try to force another dose or interfere with the growth of the seed.
They need a little space. Faith in the Lord sometimes means shutting up
and letting God use the truth that you spoke in love. Have patience while
He works.
Don't try to make that loved one take a whole bottle of spiritual medicine
all at once. Lovingly give a dose of truth, and then back off and let God
grow it. Give the medicine some time.
See you in church,
Rev. Chuck
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