Soul Soil and God's Seed
The good ground is a good heart. The key to absorbing the Word of God and manifesting the goodness and bearing the fruit of the Spirit is keeping your heart's soil good ground.
The seed is the Word of God and the ground on which it is planted is your heart. The condition of your heart determines the success of the seed's sprouting up and flourishing in you.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God." (Ezekiel 36:26-28)
That's how to become God centred! Humble yourself, then God prepares your heart to receive His Word.
"Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear," (Psalms 10:17)
When we come to God and lower ourselves humbly, then God will prepare our hearts to truly soak up His Word.
God tills the soul soil to plant His Seed in our heart garden. When He works in our humbled hearts, He is opening our spiritual eyes so we can see the truth and wonder in His Word. He opens up our spiritual ears so that we can hear His Spirit speaking to us. Now we can listen for His leading and walk in His glorious ways, and that is a God centred life!
It's all about the Heart. The thoughts that fire in and out about your mind have the capability to get lodged in there. When bitter thoughts fiddle around for too long they become attached to your heart. When bitter thoughts reach the heart they develop big and hurtful roots that strike deep into the heart's soil.
Thoughts can come into your mind, but it's how you deal with them once they've entered that determines the victory or consequential bitter-roots. If it's bad, kick it out and flood your mind and soul with God's lovely truths. When impure thoughts dwell in your mind, they bring issues into the heart, and they contaminate or defile the heart making an impure heart.
"But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." (Matthew 15:18-19)
An impure heart cannot grow the beauty of the fruits of the Spirit of God. Keep your heart holy by dwelling on things of the Lord.
Meditate on eternal things. The Word produces the fruit of goodness. All I have to do is keep my heart pure by continually crowding out the icky thoughts with the grace and beauty of God's grace and glory.
Focus your heart on God and His promises and the wonderful future we have to spend with Him! Have heaven-filled heart thoughts. Dwell on Jesus and all His splendour!
"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
Guard your heart. Don't allow the bondage of bitterness to dwell on your mind and fester into a heart problem. Uproot that! Free yourself from the chains of holding onto grudges and anger. Free yourself to freely forgive!
"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Colossians 3:13)
Happy heart gardening! This passage is inspired by Pastor Robert Morris's most recent sermon "Lordship". You can watch the original sermon here. I pray it blesses you richly. It definitely blessed me.
-The Introverted Evangelist
Comments
Post a Comment