Watch Over your Heart

God sows the seed of His Word into our heart, yet so often what comes out never takes root or barely survives. So God has to come back and plant again and again until finally His Word sprouts and takes root ... like little plants that sprout and grow tall and begin to bear some fruit.

Just look at your life: ''for how long has God been trying to grow plants of faith, holiness and obedience in your heart?''  We read daily about these things in the Bible, and we hear hundreds of sermons on the subject.  Yet too often nothing takes root and develops, though we've been a Christian for many years.

Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:3-8, 18-23.  We can we examine our hearts carefully to determine which of these types of soil is our problem.

-  The Roadside:
The seed never makes into the ground at all.   It is lying on top of or right next to the hard pavement and never has a chance to take root.  It easily withers away or is snatched away by the birds. This is the heart that is totally unprepared to receive anything.  Many factors can leave us in a place where we can't understand, or in the case of a believer, something is blocking the Holy Spirit from penetrating into our heart.  There are many things that may cause this.  Some reasons are the sin we hold on to and an unteachable spirit ...  which can be result of pride or an unsurrendered will. We may need to  allow God to  put us in a state of brokenness to receive.

-Thorny Ground: 
This ground has no hardness or rock, and is made up of good soil, soft and can easily put down roots. But the ground has never been weeded.  It has thorn brushes that overgrow and choke out the little plants.  This a picture of a heart that has been prepared to receive and the seed and develops healthy plants and can bear fruit.  But we have allowed other types of seed to take root and  choke out the good plants.  We may be a person who worries or has accepted the deceitfulness of riches. We may have surrounded ourselves with the wrong type of  people who influence us in negative ways. Worry kills our faith. Without faith we can not please God. Also the lure of riches takes our affection away from God and we desire the things the world.

God promises if we choose His will over our own, He will turn the soil of our hearts into rich
fertile ground ready to accept His seed and grow tall plants ready to bear fruit.  "If my people 
who are called by My name will humble themselves and  pray, and seek my face and turn from
their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and I will  forgive their sin, and I will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14.

If your heart has only a thin layer of good soil, and your commitment has no depth, then go to the Word of God and learn what it says.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what it cost Jesus to redeem you... what the lordship of Christ is.  By submitting to God's Word, you will find that it is "like a hammer that shatter the rock," the hard rock of your heart. (Jeremiah 23:29)