PLOW YOUR HEART

PLOW YOUR HEART!

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.” Hosea 10:12

I had the words to a song taped up near my desk so I could see them every day and remind myself that my heart needs to be tilled soil for the Word of God, the Word of Truth, to dwell. In order for the Word to even get in, our hearts must be loke prepared soil, broken up and ready for the seed of truth sown by the Holy Spirit. Too often my heart isn’t cultivated correctly and there are still hard spots there where the Word of God won’t take root and grow. I’m reminded of the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13. My heart feels like that rocky soil where the seed springs up quickly but has no root and sometimes my heart feels like the thorny soil where thorns grow up and choke the plants. I always want my heart to be the good soil where the seed will produce a good crop, a hundred times that what is sown!

We need to let the Lord plant the seeds of truth and faith in the soil of our hearts, but it is up to us to break up the hardness in our hearts and dig out the rocks and thorns that make the soil unproductive. Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). We can’t have any of that fruit if the soil of our hearts isn’t plowed and ready for the seed. Nothing will grow on hard-packed ground. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Heb. 3:8) “…he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” (Prov. 28:14b). We are reminded again and again that we must not allow our hearts to be hardened but must break up that hard ground so that the holy spirit can plant the seed necessary for the growth of good fruit in our lives. Lord, please help us plow the soil of our hearts so we can produce a good crop, a hundred-fold crop of righteousness!

“Plow the field of my heart, plant the seed of Your Life, Let the fruit of your Spirit grow. Try the thoughts of my mind, weed the lies that have grown. And leave only the Truth I should know.”

CHORUS

And I will be a garden unto You, where the springs of Your love will flow. I will be a garden unto You, Lord where the fruit of your spirit can grow.

“Flood the dryness in me with Your joy and Your peace and my heart will be new again. Let the soil of my life hold the Truth of your Word and Your Spirit will bloom within.” (Garden © Claire Cloniger and Kelly Willard)