Spring is here! Daffodils bob their bonnets joyfully at passersby, violets quietly slip in among the ever-growing blades of grass, and rosebuds are timidly folding back their velvety cloak of petals. Many people are preparing to plant vegetable gardens and plan new landscapes. One of the first things that is necessary when planting is to prepare the soil. If you expect your garden to produce, you must first dig it up, fertilize it, add some peat moss and compost. When you first till the earth, you'll find many rocks and sticks that must be removed. Even if you've planted in that same location before, most likely the dirt has grown hard and lumpy over the long winter from lack of use.
Our hearts are like a garden. In order to produce a fruitful harvest, we need to examine the soil where the seeds are to be planted. We must let the Master Gardener "break up the fallow ground". Hosea 10:12 says,
"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground:
for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."
And Jeremiah the prophet told us what the LORD commanded,
"For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem,
Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns."
Our hearts must be surrendered, soft and easy to work with. We must allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to remove the pesky weeds of unpleasant words and attitudes, the roots of bitterness and discontent, the stones of rebellion. Only then can the seeds of love, joy, self-control, and a host of other fruit spring up within us, and help us to go out and harvest "fruit" in the Father's fields.
"To break up the fallow ground, is to break up your hearts, to prepare your minds to bring forth fruit unto God. The mind of man is often compared to the ground in the Bible. The word of God is the seed sown there, the fruit representing the actions and emotions of those who receive it. To break up the fallow ground therefore, is to bring the mind into such a state that it is fitted to receive the Word of God. Sometimes your hearts get matted down, hard and dry, until there is no such thing as getting fruit from them until they are broken up, and mellowed down, and fitted to the Word. It is this softening of the heart, so as to make it feel the truth, which the prophet calls break up your fallow ground."
Charles G. Finney
