From the Hardest Places, the most Beautiful Things will Grow

When my family and I moved into our newly built home, there was no garden, not even a single blade of grass, just dirt. Hard, dry, tightly packed dirt. To dig a hole was a near to impossible task…it took an acute level of endurance, and much patience but my husband was not daunted by this stubborn ground. He, an avid gardener, with one of the greenest thumbs this side of the equator, was determined that we should have our garden, and, with relentless perseverance set out to break up that hardened ground. That ground was so immovable in certain areas that only a good soaking with water for several days could make it yield.

Do you know that the bible compares our hearts to the ground? Jeremiah 4:3 says, Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! (NLT) and in Hosea 10:12, we see the same admonition. Also Jesus, in Luke 8:15 explains “But that on the good ground are those who in an honest and good heart…”. 

Throughout the bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, the hardened ground is used to symbolize the stubborn resistance of our hearts toward God. And just as the hard upper surface of the ground must be tilled, turned, and broken up to expose soft nutrient-rich soil ready for good use by the gardener, so too must our hard hearts be tilled, turned, and broken up to expose a tender honest heart ready for good use by God. 

You see, our carnal hearts are like that hard dry ground that will not yield. Hearts that have become hardened through our own selfish pride, lack of humility and sin – the natural products of our corrupt hearts. We must allow God to plow up the hard ground of our hearts if we are to be recipients of all the goodness of God. We must allow the Holy Spirit, God’s Living Water, to flow in us, so that we may become malleable – willing to listen to Him, willing to change, and willing to obey Him. The process is painful but necessary and the results beautiful, for we will be like a well-watered garden (see Isaiah 58:11).

Amen†

From the Hardest Places, the most Beautiful Things will Grow Shelley Johnson 08-Jul-2016