Scripture to Read: Luke 8:11-12
Our Lord Jesus Christ begins to unpack His parable for us, and from this, we gain an understanding of the condition of the human heart. God had Luke record what Jesus said in Luke 8:11–12, “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12 Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.” First, Jesus makes it clear that the seed is God’s Word. Then, Jesus revealed to the disciples that the seed that fell beside the road was those whose hearts had been hardened. Hearts are hardened when people choose to allow themselves to become darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God. This happens because they’ve chosen to remain ignorant of God and His Word. The result is that their hearts are hardened and become callous, and they continually give in to their sensuality and the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness (Ephesians 4:17–19). God also shows us in 2 Corinthians 4:3–4, “…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The enemy loves to keep the minds of the lost blinded so they won’t see the gospel of Christ—that’s why we must continually shine brightly for our Lord.
Challenge & Application
Why couldn’t the hard hearts of the lost believe and be saved? What was their problem?
What must we do to continue to shine brightly for our Lord, and how should we pray for those with hardened hearts? (See John 16:8–11 and 2 Timothy 2:25–26 for help.)
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!