To Yield Is To Produce - The Key Is To Prepare The Soil of Your Heart
Never has there been found
a soil instantly ready for seed.
Soil must be worked
and the amount of work needed
depends on the soil itself.
Some soil is rocky
and the rocks must be removed
by turning the earth
and sifting down to a level
just right for the plants
to send down their roots
and produce a healthy crop.
Some soil has been untended
and weeds of all kinds have grown
and sent roots of their own
down deep and all those roots
must be removed so the weeds
don't regrow and choke out
the new healthy growth.
Some soil needs all the above
and to be enriched with compost
and other things
so that good yield can happen.
Before there can be any yield,
the soil takes time, hard work
and great effort to prepare.
It is important to work the soil
for the yield in mind.
If you want to yield a good crop
of potatoes,
there is an optimum technique needed to grow them.
You need to space the soil rows
so far apart and mound it.
As the plant grows, more soft soil
is needed to mound around
the growing plant.
The higher the mound,
the better the yield.
The preparation of soil
is ever so important
in the yielding process.
In parallel, as Christians,
we often hear about the need of yielding to God.
With all our heart we say,
"Yes God, we yield to you."
We read about the parable
of the sower in Mark 4
and we desire to be people
who Jesus describes as those
"...who listen to the message
and welcome it and yield
thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold."
Those that yielded the thirty,
sixty, even a hundredfold
are those people
who had the message sown
in rich soil.
To yield is to prepare
the soil of your heart.
Whose responsibility is it
to prepare the soil so that
there is good yield?
For each of us to yield,
there must first be the good work
of getting the soil of our heart
prepared in such a way,
that God's message -
the beautiful, life-giving, living, and active message
can have the place it needs
to root the truth of God deeply.
It is your responsibility to prepare
the precious soil of your own heart.
For those precious seeds
found along the path of those
who have taken no effort at all
to work their soil,
it is easy for Satan to come along
and carry off the message
almost instantly.
For those precious seeds
placed in rocky soil
where rocks haven't been removed
and the soil hasn't been
deeply turned to remove these,
the message is accepted excitedly
but roots of truth
find only shallow soil
and the tender plant cannot live.
There is no yield.
In this case, the heat of trouble
or persecution comes
because the message started
to make headway
towards a future of good yield
but the plant is scorched away.
For those seeds sown in soil
where weeds and thorns
have not been removed,
the message is heard
but obstacles such as life worries of all kinds,
the pleasures of being rich
and evil desires for other things
to satisfy oneself creeps in
and the root of truth
is choked away.
Then there are seeds that are sown
and the message can be planted
in a heart where the ground
has been prepared well.
These have allowed themselves
to be broken up in repentance
and turning to God.
These desire that their heart
is made rich
by turning from hardness
towards God, from evil desires and selfish pleasures.
These desire to trust God
and learn from Him and know He is faithful and will provide, protect and deliver them.
They learn to stop worrying about
things going on around them
and keep their eyes fixed on Him.
Surely the reward of one
who takes time to prepare
their heart soil is rich.
The root of truth
can go down deep and
the kingdom yield is great.
Next time you think
of yielding to God,
think of the beautiful work
and responsibility
of taking great care
of the soil
of your heart.
His truth rooted in you
and watered
in continued closeness
with Him
and His Word
will produce the sweetest fruit.
"Let the message of Christ continue to live in you in all its wealth of wisdom; keep on teaching it to one another and training one another in it with thankfulness, in your hearts singing praise to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs."
Colossians 3:16
a soil instantly ready for seed.
Soil must be worked
and the amount of work needed
depends on the soil itself.
Some soil is rocky
and the rocks must be removed
by turning the earth
and sifting down to a level
just right for the plants
to send down their roots
and produce a healthy crop.
Some soil has been untended
and weeds of all kinds have grown
and sent roots of their own
down deep and all those roots
must be removed so the weeds
don't regrow and choke out
the new healthy growth.
Some soil needs all the above
and to be enriched with compost
and other things
so that good yield can happen.
Before there can be any yield,
the soil takes time, hard work
and great effort to prepare.
It is important to work the soil
for the yield in mind.
If you want to yield a good crop
of potatoes,
there is an optimum technique needed to grow them.
You need to space the soil rows
so far apart and mound it.
As the plant grows, more soft soil
is needed to mound around
the growing plant.
The higher the mound,
the better the yield.
The preparation of soil
is ever so important
in the yielding process.
In parallel, as Christians,
we often hear about the need of yielding to God.
With all our heart we say,
"Yes God, we yield to you."
We read about the parable
of the sower in Mark 4
and we desire to be people
who Jesus describes as those
"...who listen to the message
and welcome it and yield
thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold."
Those that yielded the thirty,
sixty, even a hundredfold
are those people
who had the message sown
in rich soil.
To yield is to prepare
the soil of your heart.
Whose responsibility is it
to prepare the soil so that
there is good yield?
For each of us to yield,
there must first be the good work
of getting the soil of our heart
prepared in such a way,
that God's message -
the beautiful, life-giving, living, and active message
can have the place it needs
to root the truth of God deeply.
It is your responsibility to prepare
the precious soil of your own heart.
For those precious seeds
found along the path of those
who have taken no effort at all
to work their soil,
it is easy for Satan to come along
and carry off the message
almost instantly.
For those precious seeds
placed in rocky soil
where rocks haven't been removed
and the soil hasn't been
deeply turned to remove these,
the message is accepted excitedly
but roots of truth
find only shallow soil
and the tender plant cannot live.
There is no yield.
In this case, the heat of trouble
or persecution comes
because the message started
to make headway
towards a future of good yield
but the plant is scorched away.
For those seeds sown in soil
where weeds and thorns
have not been removed,
the message is heard
but obstacles such as life worries of all kinds,
the pleasures of being rich
and evil desires for other things
to satisfy oneself creeps in
and the root of truth
is choked away.
Then there are seeds that are sown
and the message can be planted
in a heart where the ground
has been prepared well.
These have allowed themselves
to be broken up in repentance
and turning to God.
These desire that their heart
is made rich
by turning from hardness
towards God, from evil desires and selfish pleasures.
These desire to trust God
and learn from Him and know He is faithful and will provide, protect and deliver them.
They learn to stop worrying about
things going on around them
and keep their eyes fixed on Him.
Surely the reward of one
who takes time to prepare
their heart soil is rich.
The root of truth
can go down deep and
the kingdom yield is great.
Next time you think
of yielding to God,
think of the beautiful work
and responsibility
of taking great care
of the soil
of your heart.
His truth rooted in you
and watered
in continued closeness
with Him
and His Word
will produce the sweetest fruit.
"Let the message of Christ continue to live in you in all its wealth of wisdom; keep on teaching it to one another and training one another in it with thankfulness, in your hearts singing praise to God with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs."
Colossians 3:16
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