So after learning about how Satan's seeds--which are lies--are like parasites, let's take a look at what God's seeds look like.
In dance this semester, we've been learning about how God sees us so that we can use that truth to counteract the lies that have been in our lives. This week, however, our focus changed a little bit. We learned to take the knowledge of how God sees us and who we are in him, and apply it to how we see fellow Christians who have been born again. Every Christian, after all, has become a new person in Christ and is being renewed. Each of us are loved by God, and are viewed by him as his children who have endless potential.
We were learning about how we sometimes forget that when we look at fellow Christians, especially if they've hurt us in the past (like if they provided a "mosquito bite" with their words that injected a lie into our life). But we need to surrender our relationships with each other to God, so that he can help us see those people with the redemptive vision that he has.
So that was the lesson this week. Our homework is to examine Matthew 12:34 ("Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks") in that context. We then had a time of reflection, and I saw a continuation of the heartworm picture. God compared that mosquito bite--which represents someone speaking negatively to us about ourselves that injects a lie into our lives--with an IV injection of medicine. The medicine is us speaking to each other with encouragement, to affirm the truth about each and reminding each other of who we are and how God sees us. Each of these things--the mosquito bite and the IV injection--come through the same route: injected into the blood stream. But the effects that they have on our hearts and lives are very different. The mosquito bite injects a deadly being into our lives that worms its way into our hearts and sucks our lives away. The IV injects medicine that builds up our body and strengthens our hearts.
The same is true for how we speak. Negativity and encouragement come through the same route: speaking. The negativity either plants or confirms a lie in the life of our hearer, which then worms its way into their heart and sucks their life away. Encouragement soaks into the heart in a way that benefits and strengthens the other person, preparing them to become more of who God made them to be.
So the point is: watch what you say. If your conversation is filled with Satan's seeds ("You're so frustrating" "Can't you do anything right?" Or "That was stupid"), you may need to spend some time with God so that your heart may start to overflow with his seeds instead ("I appreciate you in _____ way" "I admire ________ about you" etc.). The fruit that is born from his seeds in other's lives are the same as the fruit in our own: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So plant those seeds in your conversations with others. And I'll be trying to do the same.
