Spiritual Sketches: from the garden
Preparing The Soil Of Your Heart: A Call To Spiritual Renewal
Has your spiritual life ever felt dry and unproductive, like a garden left unattended for too long? Every spring, I borrow my neighbor’s tiller to break up the hard ground of my garden. After the harvest in late summer, I usually leave my garden alone for the winter, only adding a bit of fertilizer before the cold sets in. But after a long winter in Mississippi, there are few things better than getting out into the garden and waking it up. One of the first things I do is till the soil.
Breaking Up The Ground
Tilling the garden is all about turning over and breaking up the soil to prepare it for planting. When you till the ground, you’re aerating the soil, making it easier for water and nutrients to reach the roots. This leads to healthier plant growth. It’s also a great way to keep weeds at bay and discourage insects and fungi from setting up shop near your plants. Healthy soil means healthy plants, and a well-tilled garden is the first step toward making that happen.
But did you know the Bible talks about tilling as well? And it’s not talking about gardens. Hosea 10:12 says, “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.”
In this verse, God is speaking to Israel, a people who should have been producing fruits of righteousness but were doing the opposite. He calls them to break up their fallow ground—ground that is unused and unprepared, not ready to produce new life. This is a call to renew their spiritual life, to repent of sins, turn from their wicked ways, and return to the Lord.
Time To Seek The Lord
As the tiller blades dig into the hardened soil, they break it apart, turning lifeless dirt into fertile ground ready to receive new seeds. In the same way, God’s Word and Spirit work in our hearts, breaking up the hardness that prevents spiritual growth. Why does God command this? The answer is right there in the verse: “For it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” If your heart has grown cold toward the Lord, it means you’re seeking something else, and God will not bless that path. The gospel call of Jesus is to repent of our sins and trust in Him. As Christians, it’s easy to let our hearts grow cold by neglecting the Word, skipping prayer, or avoiding fellowship with the church. These things create fallow ground in our lives, choking out spiritual vitality. But today, God is calling you to repent and seek Him anew.
Tilling the soil of your heart might look like setting aside time each day to read Scripture, joining a Bible study group, or taking time in prayer to confess and realign your heart with God’s will.
A Call To Obedience
This is a call to live in obedience to God. Has the soil of your heart grown cold and hard? Are you seeking after the Lord, or are you chasing after something else? Just as I prepare my garden’s soil to produce healthy and abundant fruit, God desires the same for your life. If you seek after Him, your life will be a blessing to Him and to those around you. So, till up your heart.
