Thankful obedience is our acceptable worship, leads us to understanding

The most important parable Jesus gave was to explain how people hear God's word (seed) and understand it (taken to heart in "good soil").  Preparation of the soil and good timing increases the likelihood of proper growth in Christian life. At church, we always sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs before receiving the message about Christ. One of my favorite songs in Joy to the World. The verse, "Let every heart prepare Him room, Let heaven and nature sing - Joy to the World." 

God is our natural environment, everything in life is better with Him in us, we find we are in Him. Yet we must "prepare Him room" in our hearts. Singing truth about who God is and who we are in concert with other believers is a way this happens. People can "hear" praise and worship but not see "heaven and nature" sing. When we stop ourselves from singing we are tempted to judge and not let the word of Christ dwell in our hearts. We can get trapped in the same distracting thoughts and attitudes and miss out on being healed. Jesus describes this effect here:

• For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’  Matthew 13:15

I remember years ago in a prayer meeting, we were singing a new song, "be my everything." It has easy to accept and receive statements of "God in my living, there in my breathing, God in my waking, God in my sleeping, God in my resting, there in my working,  God in my thinking, God in my speaking...Be my everything, be my everything, Be my everything, be my everything" I found myself singing this song to God in heaven with my heart full of gratitude. The second verse has harder to accept and received statements, that highlights our frailty and inability to fulfill our hopes and dreams. "God in my hoping, there in my dreaming, God in my watching, God in my waiting." So we go on with life and through the ups and downs we ask God, be my everything. "God in my laughing, there in my weeping, God in my hurting, God in my healing, Be my everything, be my everything, Be my everything, be my everything." 

As I worshiped God through this song I couldn't hold back the tears. Because our whole life culminates in the bridge, "Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory, You are everything. Christ in me, Christ in me, Christ in me, the hope of glory, Be my everything" 

• The the negative and positive response to God's word is explained in the parable of the soils from Moses (Deuteronomy 29:4) to the prophets (Isaiah 6:9-10, Ezekiel 12:2, Jeremiah 5:21) and taught by Jesus in all the Gospels (Matthew 13: Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10, John 12:40). The Church in gives us this reality post resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 28:26-27, Romans 11:8). 

Yet when we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice our heart, mind, and world opens up.

• The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. Isaiah 50:4, Romans 12:1-3
• And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about. Isaiah 52:15. 
• Christine Foster opened her new Bible on the way to BSF the day after she received Jesus as Lord and Savior. God revealed as Psalm 91:1 to her "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust'”. Psalm 91 is considered a song of comfort in Judaism. It is also interpreted as a victory for the Messiah and those who are perfected by him. 
• Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. Isaiah 57:1