[Jesus] told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
Matthew 13:33-35
The Word Works Silently in Hearts
Daily Devotion – August 8, 2020
Devotion based on Matthew 13:33-35
See series: Devotions
Years ago, I used to watch my mother make bread. She kneaded a big ball of dough and then placed it in a large bowl. She mixed the contents of a small package in warm water and then poured the mixture onto the dough and worked it in. Finally, she covered the bowl with a white cloth and set it in the south window of the kitchen where the sun warmed the dough. It seemed miraculous to me that after a short time the dough started to expand. It pushed up the cloth and sometimes it stretched over the sides of the bowl. Of course, it wasn’t a miracle. It was just the yeast that mom had activated with the water that did its work throughout the bread dough. The yeast worked invisibly and silently, but the results were obvious.
In this parable, Jesus uses the working of yeast in dough to describe the power of God working in people’s hearts through his Word. The Word works silently in hearts, but it is powerfully effective. God uses it to turn our hearts from unbelief to faith in Jesus, to free us from our sins, and to rescue us from eternal death and give us the free gift of everlasting life.
The yeast of God’s Word continues to work in our hearts to help us live more consistently according to God’s holy will. As God’s power works invisibly and silently in our hearts through his Word, the result in our lives will show in what we speak with our lips, how we act with our hands, where we walk with our feet, even what we allow ourselves to look at with our eyes and listen to with our ears. God’s love for us in Jesus that he communicates to us in his Word moves us to gladly live to the glory of God!
Prayer: (from Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal, 469)
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.
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