Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
-Hosea 10:12
You don’t have to be a farmer or even read books about farming to understand that you reap what you sow. This concept is used throughout the book of Hosea as a warning to those who had turned away from God and His precepts to pursue their own goals by their own means. These were the ones who would “sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7). But Hosea also uses this principle to call God’s people back to a place of sowing a right relationship with God, which would produce a harvest of steadfast love.
Fallow ground was that which had been plowed and tilled but left unseeded to gather moisture for the next year’s planting. A by-product of this type of farming was a bountiful crop of weeds! Hosea is telling the people that it was time to plant good seed in that fertile but overgrown soil, which meant there would have to be some serious weed-pulling. The spiritual parallel is easy to see. When we allow the fertile soil of our hearts to lie untended, it grows weeds like anxiety, fear, pride, and self-absorption.
Is there some fallow ground in your heart that needs to be broken up? Is there any part of your relationship with the Lord that you have allowed to become dormant, giving opportunity to a bumper crop of weeds? Use this time of reflection this morning to ask God to help you remove any weeds that are getting in the way of a completely right relationship with Him, then prepare yourself to receive the nourishing rain of His Holy Spirit and the rich reward of His steadfast love.
Prayer
Lord, I give you access to the soil of my heart. Remove whatever hinders my close relationship with you. Pour out your Holy Spirit on my life so that I will produce a bountiful crop of good fruit for your Kingdom.
Break Up Your Fallow Ground | Devotionals | ALTAR Church
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