Fast Food Grace 🍔

Hey friends, 

I hope you’re having a great week so far! Thank you for subscribing and reading these devotionals. I hope they are able to bless you each week!

We live in a time where we want everything quickly and on-the-go. We consume fast food and eat in our cars, more often than we’d like to admit. Much like my consumption of what’s convenient, I find myself giving “fast food grace”: it’s in the brief here and there moments that I seek Jesus. And although God loves even the littlest moments with us, it’s not as spiritually nourishing to our bodies — much like how fast food isn’t for our physical ones.

Those little moments with God aren’t bad, but they’re also not enough. We cannot depend on fast food grace. Of course, I’d like to think that spending time with Jesus is fulfilling, but really how spiritually nourishing and satisfying is to me? Am I allowing the Word change my heart and grow my spirit or am I just going through the motions? In the parable of the four soils, I think this is what Jesus was trying to teach us:

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who  receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by preserving produce a crop.” Luke 8:11-15

Jesus gives four examples of where a plant is root and how the type of soil it’s rooted in, causes different outcomes. In fact, only one ends up being fruitful.

1. Path: people refuse to believe God’s message.
2. Rock: people believe his message but never get around to doing anything about it.
3. Thorn patch: people who are overcome by worries and the lure of materialism, leaving no room in their lives for God.
4. Good soil: people follow Jesus no matter what the cost.

So the question is, what type of soil are you?

When I read that parable, I thought about my walk with Jesus and how it’s looked like each of those plants. When I reflect over the fruitful and fulfilling parts of my life, it’s always the times when I was rooted in God, in the good soil.

We need to move away from the fast food grace and return to the grandiose, fulfilling, extravagant meal our souls truly long for and allow more time for one on one time with Jesus. And this isn’t something that can be done in five minute sessions we think that spiritually fulfills us. Being rooted takes time. Without this nourishment for our “soil”, we begin to wither away.

Be blessed,

Brittany ❤️

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19