The new year is quickly approaching, in fact, is only five days away, and this morning I am wondering where our hearts lie; the hearts of God’s children. What does the ground of our hearts look like? A couple years ago, we planted a garden on a small area that used to have marshland reeds. It seemed like no matter how many we pulled new reeds kept growing in the garden; we could not get rid of them. It became impossible to keep the weeding up, and in the end, we gave up.
There is a parable that Jesus told of a farmer sowing some seed. As he is scattering the seed, some fall on a hard path, some over rocky soil, some fall among the thorns, and some on good soil. So I’m wondering where (in general) the hearts of God’s children stand in these choices. Are we hard hearted, shallow, squeezed by the world, or are we the good soil the Lord desires us to be.
The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it, but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced. Mark 4:18 ,19 TLB
Christmas has become so commercial the last few decades that it’s hard to remember what the season is really all about. (It's great we are putting up signs to keep Christ in Christmas, but are we keeping Christ in our hearts this Christmas?) But the scripture above makes me wonder if our hearts are caught up in the world too much. We are attracted to the things of the world, the trips, the toys, the excesses, and all the things the world says are important. The delights of wealth lead us to wanting more- of everything; a life of ease, status brought by the money, a beautiful home and car, freedom to buy whatever we want and working to pay for it all.
We all want to ‘be somebody’ and so we struggle and strive for success just like the rest of the world, because success means lots of money and lots of things we want and a full life- doesn’t it? Ah, all the nice things of the world come in and crowd out the abundant life that God longs for us to have. Once our hearts are distracted by all the worldly things, there is no room left in our hearts for our God and our love for Him. Are we transforming the world or being conformed to it which we are warned not to do (Rom. 12:2).
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jh. 2:15 -17
Let’s all consider changing the ground of our hearts this new year to soft, plowed ground that the seeds of God’s Word can fall in, grow and produce yields of crops that can feed the world. The weeds don’t need to crowd us out anymore. If all of us determine to prepare the ground of our hearts we will change the world by the brightness of our light.