Cultivating the Heart: The Key to Bearing Fruit in Faith

When my husband and I bought our current home, we decided to start the "curb appeal project" in our front yard. Before planting a new flower bed, I had to do several things to prepare the ground before I could plant anything. I had to shovel off about two to three inches of grass and topsoil, loosen the hard dirt, pull out any rocks, get rid of the weeds, add potting soil with fertilizer, mulch the whole area, and finally water the new plants. From the top, you don't see all the work done beneath the surface, but from the further growth of the plant, we know that the job was done correctly.

In the Parable of the Soils (Luke 8:4-15), Jesus teaches about this process going on in our hearts. I urge you to read this passage for yourself and ask the Lord to show you who you are in this story. Here is a summary of the story: A farmer went out to scatter his seed, and the seed fell in different areas. Some seeds fell on the road, some fell in the gravel, some fell in the weeds, and some fell on rich earth. Jesus goes on to explain that the seed is the Word of God.

Some believers hear the gospel message and then the enemy takes it away; some are excited at first, but that does not last, and it goes away. For others, they hear the gospel truth but input from the world creeps in and takes over. And finally, there is the believer who takes hold of God's Word and sticks with it, no matter what happens in their life, and waits on the harvest.

What God wants YOU to get from this story is that you have a responsibility to take care of the seed. If you want a bountiful, Godly harvest, you must take care of where the seed, the Word of the Lord, is put down. We get the opportunity to choose how we bloom with Christ's love.

Colossians 2:6-7 says, "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with gratitude."

Here is a gauge you can test the soil with in your own life:

Are you being fed by the Word of God?

Are you being watered by being in prayer?

Are you being fertilized by being in community with other believers?

Are the weeds of sin plucked out of your life?

Perspectives into Practice:

I challenge you today to take a moment and gauge where your heart is living. Is it living in hard soil, shallow soil, crowded soil, or good soil? God wants you to flourish and grow, but He can only do that if you plant yourself in Him.

Friend, is your heart firmly rooted in Christ? The water, food, and fertilizer MUST be from God so that you grow. You can indeed produce "fake fruit" for a short time, but you won't be able to keep it up for too long. I heard a pastor once say, "Jesus doesn't want to be part of your life, He wants to BE your life!" Choose Him!