The Soil Of Your Heart

The Soil Of Your Heart

A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. This seed began to grow, but soon it withered and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop one hundred times as much as had been planted. –Luke 8:5-8

How is the soil of your heart? When you read or hear God’s Word, does the seed take root and grow into fruit in the good earth of your life? Or is the seed falling on a hard heart, a shallow heart, or a distracted heart?

For some of us, the soil of our hearts has been hardened by disappointment and cynicism. Our hearts become calloused when they are pricked over and over by the truth but we fail to respond. For many, the seed of God’s Word falls on a heart with shallow, stony soil. These responded enthusiastically to God initially but have never allowed his Word to run deep and take root in their lives. When the heat of hardship beats down on them, there is no deep inner strength to face it. All of us find the soil of our hearts infected at times with thorns and weeds. Our lives become so easily cluttered with time-wasting and soul-absorbing things. We find ourselves sitting in church thinking about our plans for the afternoon or rushing through our devotions so we can get on with “more important things.” This type of soil is dangerous and deceiving as we may hardly notice the weeds of pleasure and empty activity growing up around us. Then we awaken to find a hollowness within. The weeds’ roots have choked out the true seed of God’s Word before it could grow into something beautiful and fruitful in our lives.

Is the soil of your heart receptive to the seed? Are you willing to allow God to plow up your heart so his Word can take root? Only the Divine Gardener can break up the hard ground in your heart, uproot the rocks, and remove the weeds and thorns. That is your only hope—not your efforts, but the work of the Gardener. He promises, “I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart” (Ezekiel 36:26). Sower, plow up the ground of my heart. Remove the rocks of indifference and the weeds of worldly wisdom so that your Word will run deep in my life and blossom into beautiful fruitfulness for your glory.

DIGGING DEEPER