Did you know that our spiritual life is dependent on the Word of God as much as our natural life is dependent on food? In Mark chapter 4, we are told 4 different parables of how the Word of God works in our lives. Each time, the Word is referred to as seed, and our hearts are referred to as the ground that receives the seed. The Word of God is powerful, but unless it is taken into our hearts, through us meditating on its truth, it will never be powerful “to us”. Receiving the Word of God into the fabric of our hearts, requires far more than a once off commitment to do so. It must become a lifestyle of delighting in the study of the Word, before it can consistently produce fruit in our lives. Fruit is the evidence that the Word of God is present, working and transforming our lives. The Bible says the just shall live by faith – that means it’s a consistent way of life for us. Faith comes to our minds from our spirits, as we renew them to the truth of God’s Word. As you know, the renewed mind is not the product of a casual visit in the Word. It is the result of us reading, agreeing with, and wholeheartedly believing that Word. It’s when we have a mental picture, or a hope, in our minds of what the Word says. As we fix our attention on that hope, our souls become anchored in it. In fact, no matter what opposition comes against that hope, our faith is unwavering, because we are fully persuaded that the Word is true and will have the final say concerning what we believe. A lifestyle of faith is more than just spending quality time in the Word at the beginning of the day, only to entertain every kind of negative thought and speech to oppose it throughout the rest of the day. We literally work against that seed of truth, uprooting it before it has time to settle down and grow roots inside us. We have to sow the Word into our hearts and leave it there – meditating on it, night and day, giving it time to germinate and grow – transforming our mindset to align to its truth, until it becomes a permanent fixture that leads us into righteous living and success. Today, don’t just be a good receiver of the Word, be a good caretaker of it, by refusing to have it dug up by negativity before it has a chance to produce fruit.