There's a type of soil that lies just below the surface in some areas of the world's landscape called "hardpan". Not only is it hard and unrelenting, it doesn't allow water or roots to penetrate and can leave the ground barren, desolate and unproductive. This same condition is also found to exist in some of the hearts of mankind...
1"You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!"
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NLT)
The most productive soil is able to be tilled - broken and made open and receptive to water. It's made rich with nutrients and minerals, often by the application of compost and fertilizer - things that have died...
...Fertile hearts are often made by the same methods - broken, watered and made fertile by those things that have been allowed to die.
In the case of mankind, the heat of pride is often the hardening agent that makes a heart hard and resistant to becoming truly productive. The inalienable right to conquer a heart belongs to the Lord who actually created it, but in the human case the gardener of hearts gives us a choice to yield or to remain infertile and useless. The Lord is a gardener who sends no one to desolation - if we resist Him, we freely and foolishly choose that for ourselves.
It can be difficult to explain to a desolate heart sometimes in ways that it will understand, what real, fertile and productive life is like. But the fruit of our lives speaks for itself often without the need for words to be seen as attractive and provides the best evidence to back up what we might say. A rich and fertile garden laid beside desolate ground demonstrates the potential for the desolate to become something more, but fertile words from a desolate garden bear no fruit in evidence. What we live along side what we say is just as important.
If we truly desire to have fertile and productive lives we have to be willing to put our pride aside and become willing to become truly broken and allow those things that are ungodly in us to die. It's by surrendering to the work that the Lord would do in us that our lives become attractive and that we have the ability to speak with more obvious credibility to others. But in that surrender, it's also we who prosper and flourish.
Some of us are broken to a point, but are unwilling to go farther and until we are, our lives may continue to speak in conflict with what we might say with our mouths. If we remain this way, not only are we doing a disservice to our Lord, but we miss the fruitfulness in our own lives that we can only obtain by willing submission. It's interesting that we live in a world that's convinced that it must see something in order to believe it, but are surrounded by the promises of God that must be believed to be seen. Our complete submission to choose to obey Him - accepting Christ's sacrifice to be punished in our place and surrendering to the opportunity to become broken ground, yielding completely to His hand, is the key to having the full and fruitful lives we've been promised.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NLT)
14 "Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. 18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.”
1 "Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God."
2 Corinthians 7:1 (NLT)
Till me Lord and work in me until my heart yields the reward that your own heart deserves for all that you have done and all that your grace has provided me. For all that you are and for all that you choose in your unequaled grace to be to us, my heart will forever praise you with a grateful heart. Make me productive to serve your own will and purpose.
"Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you." Psalm 143:8 (NLT)
Micah 6:8 (NLT) "No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
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