Fallowed Much?

There's a corner in my backyard I've been working on. I'm trying to break it up and move it so that I can do some new landscaping in that area. Let me tell you...it's a lot of work! I'm pretty sure this area has not been cultivated probably since the house was built 35 years ago. It's petrified, ugly, and unusable (right now anyway). One might say it's pretty fallow ground.

As I work away with my shovel and pick axe I'm reminded of the scripture in Hosea 10:12:

"Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you."

God also told the men of Judah to break up their fallow ground, and to not sow among thorns (Jeremiah 4:3). Like the ground, I know my heart can get hardened and useless.

I find it interesting that in those two passages, it's not the work of God to break up the fallow ground. Rather it is a work that I must do. Just like I have to get outside and work the ground in preparation for a new purpose, it's my job to break up the ground of complacency and routine in my life.

Our hearts and our ministries can become fallow from several things. It could be a relationship issue that has made us bitter, or a really painful situation that has left us numb. We can wait, we can pray hoping that things get better. However, if our heart has been hardened and we've hit a dead end, The Word encourages us that the next step is ours to take. We must act.

God wants to do a new work in us over and over again. However, our fallow ground impedes the absorption of his righteousness because of our lack of fertile soil.

As I work in the corner of my backyard and come across weeds, roots, rocks, trash and Cable TV lines, I'm reminded of all the junk that I've allowed to harden my heart. Weeds of mistrust, roots of failure that have grown and expanded, rocks of lies from the enemy, and yeah, all that trash from Cable TV. I have to take action to rid my heart of these things so that God can have His way in me.

It happens to us all, what matters is what we chose to do so that we can experience the power of God working in us in a new way. So we can either sit on the couch of complacency, or pick up the shovel and get to work!