Every Thought Captive: Fallow Ground

Thanks, Jewel, for the picture!

With spring here, it's been so much fun to get back outside after a very hardy winter and get to work on outdoor projects! Since I was gone last harvest, there was a lot of clean up work to do in the garden in addition to prepping it for planting, so I was really thankful for the help of my hard-working friend, Laura! With no tiller, it took us a little longer to break up the ground, but we got it all done by the time she left (with a little tennis, smoothies and games in between, of course).It's amazing how compact the dirt can get over the winter. I kept thinking of the verse in Hosea that says,

Sow to yourselves in righteousness,

reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground:

for it is time to seek the LORD,

till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

Hosea was referring to our hearts as "fallow ground". What a picture! Our hearts, hard as dirt that is heavy and compressed, that has been undisturbed inactive and unfruitful. How quickly we can become hardened and less attentive to the call of God in our lives even in the small things.

To break up the fallow ground, is to break up your hearts, to prepare your minds to bring forth fruit unto God. The mind of man is often compared to the ground in the bible. The word of God is the seed sown there, the fruit representing the actions and emotions of those who receive it. To break up the fallow ground therefore, is to bring the mind into such a state that it is fitted to receive the Word of God. Sometimes your hearts get matted down, hard and dry, until there is no such thing as getting fruit from them until they are broken up, and mellowed down, and fitted to the Word. It is this softening of the heart, so as to make it feel the truth, which the prophet calls break up your fallow ground.

Charles G. Finney