Breaking Up The Dirt

Learning everyday tasks involved with living on a farm has given me greater insight to a few spiritual truths found in God’s Word.  I had never given soil or dirt too much thought before moving to our farm, other than the fact that I’ve never enjoyed getting dirty.  As we’ve learned about preparing the soil in the garden each spring before planting, I now see the importance of tilling the dirt, and breaking up the ground to eliminate any hard, dry soil that may have been matted down over the winter. By plowing up the tough, brittle ground, our goal is to prepare the surface to become soft and fertile so it will ready to accept the seeds.  We will then plant those seeds and water them so that strong, healthy plants will grow, providing us with food in which to feed our family. 

If we were to go out and attempt to plant seeds in our garden on that hard, dry ground, it would not be a successful endeavor.  It would be a futile waste of time, because there would be no growth, no healthy food and the ground would simply remain in its brittle useless state. Soil that has been unplowed is sometimes referred to as “fallow” ground and simply cannot be used for any productive purposes. 

In God’s Word we often see the analogy between our mind and hearts in comparison with the soil of the ground.   At times our hearts become hardened and brittle from unconfessed sin, and like fallow ground, we become useless to carry out God’s purposes for us.  God told Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah 4:3 to, “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.”  The Lord desires for His children to make sure we are continually breaking up any unplowed soil in our hearts.  When our hearts are in need of spiritual tilling, we will exhibit the tell tale attitudes of apathy, indifference, unresponsiveness, carelessness, insensitivity, stubbornness and resistance to readily receiving the seed of God’s Word.  These attitudes are displayed when we have a lack of interest or involvement in ministering to other people’s needs, no longer have a burden to see the lost come to the Savior, or when we choose to rebel against God given authority in our lives.  Neglecting to continually till up the soil of our hearts is used by Satan to cause hard heartedness, stubbornness and rebellion to set in and create hard, matted ground where we can’t receive the seed of God’s Truth.  In this unplowed condition, we also cannot bear godly fruit. Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord…”  Refusing to break up fallow soil caused by unconfessed sin in our hearts leads to destruction and we simply will not prosper in our lives.  We are warned of the contrasting results of how we choose to deal with our sin in Proverbs 28:13, “He that covers his sins will NOT prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”        

I know the toil and hard labor that comes from living with a heart full of soil that I rarely tilled.  It’s hard work being selfish and prideful.  It’s hard work being bitter and holding onto all of those grudges.  It’s hard work being frustrated and irritated over petty offenses.  It’s no wonder I was always exhausted!  Please listen to someone who knows the heartache of choosing to live in disobedience and rebellion to the God of the universe!  Whether it’s inward or outward sin that leads you to the road of rebellion, you will never find the freedom, joy and peace you are searching for by indulging in the empty pleasures of this world.  I can’t even explain the peace and joy that has filled my life now that I’ve surrendered my will to live in submission to the authority of my Savior.  The difference between a life FULL of heartache, and an ABUNDANT life FULL of blessing, is our willingness to humble ourselves and break up the hard soil in our hearts by confessing our sin.  Unconfessed sin is the tool that our Enemy uses in an attempt to bring about our destruction!  If Satan can’t destroy us, he’ll steal precious time from us fulfilling God’s purposes in our lives by getting us to believe the empty deceptive promises of sin.  We must humbly examine our thoughts, attitudes, speech and actions under the microscope of God’s Word if we are to break up the hard, fallow ground in our hearts.  How about you?  In close examination of the soil of your heart, have you found hardness, indifference, rebellion, insensitivity or apathy?  Is it time for you to do some spiritual tilling?  I John 1: 9 says that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL our unrighteousness.”