December 14, 2012
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Break up the fallow ground
This was my facebook status yesterday. I thought it worth sharing here. These were my own thoughts while reflecting on how little we know of suffering and how much we crave comfort in all we do --- and just what it takes to plow a field to make it usable. For six months now I have been reflecting on the parable of the soils --- this is merely one more facet of that diamond of a parable.
Hosea 10:12 I said, ‘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.’ (Living Translation)
In asking the Lord to break up the "fallow ground of our heart" (King James version) I wonder how many of us consider what that really means.
The plow, when cultivating the field, destroys the field. It rips it to shreds. It bottoms it up and turns it upside down. It quite literally makes the field look like a controlled bomb blast occurred.
This is what we should ask of the Lord --- Not that he gives us lives of comfort and ease, but rather that he should tear away, rip up, plow deep and remove any obstacles from us that prevent us from serving him fully.... and there is no way that this takes place comfortably!!!!
Lord --- may my heart be tilled, re-tilled, and tilled yet again until all that is thorny, rocky or stubborn detrius be removed and you find that your Word, when planted, yields the fruit of your desire.
Amen.