“Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer’s year. It brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul.”
Billy Graham
You can tell it’s harvest time by all the pumpkins we see around the city. But before there can be a harvest, seeds are planted in cultivated soil. Cultivating soil requires two steps: the removal of weeds and loosening the soil so that air, nutrients, and water can penetrate deep, where plant roots can gain access to them. Before seeds are planted, there has to be a plowing or a breaking up of the hard, crusty ground.
God, as our Gardener also plows in order to plant. And just like a farmer has an end product in mind, so too God has a goal for us. God doesn’t just break up fallow ground without a reason in mind and fortunately, plowing is temporary, as we read in Isaiah 28:24. “When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?” God plows for a purpose: for planted seeds to reap a harvest.
Recently, God spoke these words to me: I’ve prepared the soil of your heart for a great harvest. I’ve turned the soil over, broken it up, soaked it with your tears, planted new seeds, and I’ve supplied the Son to shine. Now watch and see, a great harvest of Mine will spring up and many will be fed by the new crop.
The few years prior to our move to Wichita, were hard years of plowing. I did not like seeing the ugliness of presumption or the victim role played out in my life. God broke up the uncultivated ground of pride and complacency within my heart. I saturated the soil with my tears, as I grieved the loss of family, friends and the familiar, in preparation for our move. I’m now grateful to begin to see a bit of the crop come up.
Galatians 6:7 tells us we will always harvest what we plant. We’re warned in Proverbs 20:4, “If you are too lazy to plow, don’t expect a harvest.” Never underestimate the importance and the necessity of plowing the soil of our hearts. But, be encouraged by Galatians 6:9. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Hang in there; harvest time is coming!
“Everything you do is a seed that you sow. Seed bad, harvest bad. Seed good, harvest good.”
Joyce Meyer
Relevant Reflection:
Describe a time when God had to cultivate the soil of your heart and the harvest that came afterward.