Break Up Your Fallow Ground!

For thus saith the LORD, to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not in thorns. Jeremiah 4:3

Our church sits on sixteen and a half acres of which about 9 acres is farmable ground. In years past we have rented it out to farmers and they paid us, it was a great deal. We used the money for youth and bus ministry and sometimes for gifts for the leaders of the church. The farmers would grow anything from corn to pumpkins on the land. It looks beautiful when it is tilled and that black soil is brought to the surface. Tragically, the past two years we have not had anyone farm it and the Lord has certainly taught me some lessons from it.

The first lesson is, you can’t expect good fruit from the past to reappear accidently. The ground must be tilled every year. It not only needs to be tilled but the seed needs to planted.

The second lesson is, untilled ground does not stop the weeds from growing. They seem to grow more abundantly than the corn of a few years ago. The weeds are so thick and high you could get lost if some one dropped you in the middle of the field. Besides the fact that the weeds are a breeding ground for insects and rodents.

The third lesson is, even if you plant the good seed among the thorns your good seed will be suffocated by the thorns. “And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit” Mark 4:7

Now for the application; We can’t expect to live on last years seed and fruit. We all have seasons in our lives where our hearts grow hard and if we don’t purposely do something about it we will grow weeds and thorns! Our lives will be come very unbearable to us and others! We need to break up our fallow ground. We need to be broken and humbled and thank God when he does it. The act is we can help our hearts stay tilled by practicing a spirit of gratitude. What if God only gave you to day what you thanked him for yesterday?

Bitterness can harden our hearts. We will get wounded the question is will we show forgiveness? Those with an unforgiving spirit will harden the soil of their heart and produce nothing but weeds and thorns! Why is it we can forgive some people easier than others? Is it because of our love for them? Is it because we expect less of them? The fact is, those we expect most from can still hurt us. If we can’t forgive them we do more damage to our hearts than theirs!

Envy can harden your heart have you been looking around at what other have and coveting? Unbridled covetousness will turn to envy and envy into malice. You will become the offender, remember he throws dirt loses ground! They that compare themselves among themselves are not wise… 2 Corinthians 10:12

Neglect can harden our hearts, the neglect of devotion, church service, ministry involvement and witnessing will harden the heart. You may have thought that for a while you were fine with your Bible knowledge and past involvement but you have grown cold maybe worldly and now your heart is untilled ground filled with weed and thorns!