Get your Garden Gloves

Who knows what a rototiller is? I do. We owned one. I watched my father wrestle with it each spring as he prepared our garden for planting. Years later, when I had to rent my own rototiller, I finally came to understand why the process of tilling the ground looked like a wresting match between my father and the machine! 

If you're a farmer, fallow ground is land that's been left unseeded and unused for a season. It's typically overgrown with weeds and thorns and the surface is hard and unyielding. Consequently, the farmer needs to break up the fallow ground so that the tender seeds can take root.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

If you're a christian, fallow ground in your heart is any area that needs some tending so that "good works," repentance and blessing from the Lord may follow.

Here's the thing though: Breaking up the fallow ground is HARD WORK! I oughta know: Three years of illness has produced some problems in my life, both spiritual and physical. And to get back to the place where I'm growing spiritually in these temporarily unused areas, I need to till the soil of my heart so that growth can occur. Here's how the prophet Hosea explained it to the children of Israel: Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).

How 'bout you? Need to rent a rototiller to get rid of an ugly gossip habit (or a tendency to lie or a root of bitterness or a struggle with alcohol or a type of selfishness or a...)? Turn to the Bible. When read with the Holy Spirit at work in your heart - AND with the willingness to persevere - fresh, tilled, fertilized soil is soon to follow.

...need to borrow my garden gloves?

 

 

 

Blog PostJulie Tate