The Soil of Your Heart

I was talking the other day with my good friend Beth (see her blogs 'Confessions of a Peace Lover' and hear her weekdays at 10 am on the radio WNPQ 95.9 or www.thelight959.com). We were discussing the parable of the sower and the seed (found in Mt.13:3-23) on our Circle of Friends radio program and she posed a question that has continued to drift around my thoughts and heart.

"How's the soil of your heart?"

You remember the story of the farmer who planted his crop and his seed fell in different types of soil - some fell along the road - never even made it into the soil and the birds came along and ate the seeds. Some fell on rocky ground - it grew quickly because the dirt was shallow - but it died quickly because there were no roots going down into the earth to support the crop. Some of the seeds fell into thorns and weeds that choked the crop until the weeds overtook the good plants.

And then there was the seed that fell on the good soil - but even there the crop was multiplied better in some instances than others. In some places it was a hundred times more, some places it grew sixty times more, and some places the seed only multiplied thirty times as much. Jesus goes on to say that we need to 'see with our eyes' and 'hear with our ears'.

What does all that mean? The explanation of the parable is found in the latter verses of that portion of Scripture. The seed along the road that never even makes into the soil is like a person who has no understanding. He 'hears' the message, but doesn't 'see' what it means. The birds represent the Evil One who snatches the seed right out of our hearts before we have a chance to cultivate it into the soil of our understanding.

The rocky soil represents the person who takes in the message of Christ's kingdom with joy, but that's as far as it gets. It doesn't 'take root', change his life, make any real difference. He can't handle trials or persecution or even inconvenience.

And the seed among the weeds? That's the person that is consumed with this world instead of eternity. That worry and focus on themselves keeps the seed from growing. It is only the good ground - the cultivated soil, the fertile heart that produces fruit. And how much fruit? That depends on what Beth calls the 'fertilizer' of our life. The muck and the yuck we don't like to deal with - in a nutshell, it is how we are transformed into the image of Christ through trials and struggles that we allow God to use to change our attitudes, which leads to a change in our actions and behavior.

Her point was that - whether we realize it or not - we are sowing seeds into our life everyday. Those seeds will someday reap a harvest - the question is, what kind of harvest are you reaping? The good news is that even if we're reaping a harvest of bad habits and wrong attitudes, we can start today to sow a good harvest for tomorrow!

Farmers don't cultivate a field once and then are done with it. Soil needs constant attention - fertilization for maximum growth. How's the soil of your heart today? When you are presented with a teaching about God's kingdom from His word is your heart ready to let it go deep into your life? Will that teaching produce fruit or be snatched away, set aside as not that important, or choked out by the world?

Maybe this question will linger for you as it has for me.

All for Him,

Missy