One Word.

FOR WHEN YOU NEED DIRECTION — I

4 min readJan 1, 2021

As we begin another year, I thought it would be good if I started by asking God for some direction. I realised that I had spent much of last year catching up with what God was saying and maybe if I’d asked Him at the start, 2020 might not have been such a shock to the system after all?

So over these first five weeks of January 2021, I’m going to ask God for One Word (a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph) that will offer clarity and direction, which I can use to help me navigate the rest of the year.

I thought you might like to join me?

To do so, I’m going to use Mark 4:1–5:20 to help lead us there. In this passage we find three well known stories that dovetail nicely together to provide a blueprint for how this One Word (a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph) can help us to maintain our focus throughout the journey ahead.

Each week, I’ll present two of the ten ideas that we find here and then, using those ideas, we’ll start to pray into which One Word (a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph) God would sow into the soil of our hearts for this New Year.

So, let’s begin.

The People at the Shore:

Chapter 4 of Mark’s gospel begins like this,

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.
Mark 4:1 NIV

The parable that Jesus is about to tell is paralleled in the position he takes. While the Sower in the story sows seed, Jesus is sowing words. And those in the crowd are the hearers. Some of them have ears to hear. We’ll expand on this throughout the series.

Later on, it will be this lake that Jesus and his disciples cross over to the other side. The same lake on which Jesus would also walk on, and soon sleep on… is where Jesus now sits in a boat out on it.

Throughout the gospels we see the contrast between experienced fishermen who are often out of sorts out on the lake and a carpenter’s son from Nazareth who seems very at home out there.

Here Jesus, sitting in this boat out on this lake, is inviting people to come nearer to the shore. To move closer to the water’s edge. The invitation is for the people to lean in and listen.

I want you to grasp the potential here. A large crowd of people all listening to the words of Jesus. Every one of them with the potential to produce a significant harvest if just One Word was to settle in the right place in their heart.

Are you positioned to receive One Word from heaven?

The Parable of the Sower:

And so Jesus, in this boat on this lake, begins to tell them this parable.

He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed…”
Mark 4:2‭-‬3 NIV

And when Jesus explains the parable to the disciples he adds,

The farmer sows the word.
Mark 4:14 NIV

Jesus starts the parable with the imperative for the people to “Listen!” Listening is a vital skill that, most of the time, most of us struggle with.

We often feel that God isn’t saying anything, that he’s quiet. But maybe it’s not that God’s not speaking but that we don’t have “ears to hear.”

One of the things I love about this parable is that there’s this wonderful picture of God speaking. Scattering words throughout the world. Looking to sow seeds in us that will change the world by changing our hearts.

You’ve heard of God the Father, well this is God the Farmer.

“You’ve heard of God the Father, well this is God the Farmer.”

Will you catch what God’s saying? Will these good seeds fall on the good soil of your heart?

Are you listening?

Prayer:

Farmer God,
Thank you for your goodness. For your good plans and purposes for me. Thank you that you are always sowing these seeds of encouragement, hope and direction as a farmer sows good seed on the land.

I begin to position myself to hear from heaven. My desire is to listen! Help me to lean in. I come now to the water’s edge. This amazing place of faith.

I begin to ask you for your One Word to me? A word that will direct my paths in 2021. Help me to receive it.

Help me to start this year though, by not simply rushing into things. But to spend sufficient time here at the edge.

Amen.

Notes:

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