Secret Ways
But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
- Matthew 13:23
When I am out with my granddaughter Stella and we are about to go into a restaurant, I sometimes will say, "Now, that is the normal way that people go in. But then there is the secret way. Who wants to go the secret way?"
"I do, Papa," Stella says. So we will go around and walk in through a side door. And as we are walking in, I will say, "Be really quiet. Don't let anyone see this, because it is the secret way."
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At times we are looking for the secret way in our spiritual lives. We are looking for the shortcut to spirituality. I hate to break the news, but there is no secret way. Spiritual growth takes time, and lots of it. Conversion happens instantaneously, but transformation takes a lifetime.
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talked about those who hear God's Word and then follow it through from beginning to end: "But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces . . . " (Matthew 13:23). It is really important that we absorb as much Scripture as we can, but we also need to understand what we are reading.
We are to think about God's Word, we are to ponder it, and we are to meditate in it day and night (see Psalm 1:1–2). C. H. Spurgeon said, "Nobody ever outgrows Scripture. The Book widens and deepens with our years." And the result is that you will bring forth spiritual fruit.
Our objective as Christians is to be conformed into the image of Jesus and to bring forth spiritual fruit as we glorify God with our lives. That is what we should be focusing on.
