Cultivating the Soil of our Hearts

Posted on February 5, 2019 by America's Keswick in Victory Call

“I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come, and shower righteousness upon you’” Hosea 10:12 NLT

As a child, I had this very unusual attraction to the garden tools in my father’s garage. I seemed to always have to take them out of their holders and play with them on his perfectly, well-mannered lawn. But the one tool that always grasped my attention was the cultivator. I am unsure if it was the shape of it or the fact when you pushed it back and forth, it pulled up weeds and softened the dirt. When mom was preparing her flower garden, I could not wait to use that tool. I was right there waiting to “churn” up the soil.

As God woke me up one very early morning, he spoke “cultivate” to my heart. I was confused and unsure what that meant, so I decided to look up the meaning of the word. A cultivator is a tool to prepare the seedbed for the crop to be planted, it warms the soil before planting, it helps control weeds, and it is used to mix and incorporate the soil to ensure the growing crop has enough water and nutrients to grow well. Very interesting, I thought!

As I began my morning reading and prayer time, God brought me to Hosea 10:12, “plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord.”  Our hearts are a field of deception and sin that only God, our Gardener, can soften. When we allow sin into our lives, our hearts begin to harden towards God and His Word. In order to seek the Lord diligently, we need to give our hearts over to Him and ask Him to “plow up” the hard soil and remove the weeds that are choking our full surrender to Him. We are called as His beloved children “to work at living holy lives” (Hebrews 12:14 NLT).  Living a life for Jesus requires a heart change. Every day we need to come before the throne of God and ask Him to cultivate our hearts. To prepare the soil in our hearts and plant seeds of righteousness so that we can produce a vast harvest of fruit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

God is the great Gardener of our hearts. God is Our Father who wants to shower blessings but first we must allow Him to prepare our hearts in order to receive those blessings.

“You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops” (Psalm 65:10).

My prayer for you is to give your hearts over to God and allow Him to soften the hard soil within your heart, removing the weeds and all the clumps and leveling out the soil to begin planting seeds of righteousness. May the power of God produce a harvest of love through you. Place both hands on the plow, follow Jesus, and never look back (Luke 9:62).

God Bless!

Written by Danielle Milano: Danielle is our newest Victory Call writer and a guest of America’s Keswick. She is a follower of Jesus Christ who was saved by the Grace and Mercy of God in 2015. She attends Cornerstone Calvary Chapel and is part of their single moms ministry. Her greatest ministry is being a mother to her sweet son.

The Daily Bible Reading: Isaiah 37-38, Mark 9:30-50| You can download our 2018 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Daily Quote: “Continue to plant seeds of trust and faith. They will bear great fruit.” – Steven Furtick

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? – Numbers 23:19

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