Fallow Ground 10/3/2018

Good Morning,

My mug was just filled with Door County Caramel Apple Coffee. It is a blessing to be sitting here enjoying a cup of java and writing. My desk just seems to want to trap me here. I could easily say yes to that invitation.

Hosea 10:12 New International Version (NIV)

Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

    for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

    and showers his righteousness on you.

Last night during our Men's Bible Study the verse from Hosea 10:12 was quoted in the message we were listening to. The verse stayed with me all the way home and I pondered it for awhile last night. I looked for definitions of "Fallow Ground" and found these which I believe capture the essence of the words.

Dictionaries - Easton's Bible Dictionary - Fallow-ground

Fallow-groundThe expression, "Break up your fallow ground" ( Hosea 10:12 ; Jeremiah 4:3 ) means, "Do not sow your seed among thorns", i.e., break off all your evil habits; clear your hearts of weeds, in order that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness. Land was allowed to lie fallow that it might become more fruitful; but when in this condition, it soon became overgrown with thorns and weeds. The cultivator of the soil was careful to "break up" his fallow ground, i.e., to clear the field of weeds, before sowing seed in it. So says the prophet, "Break off your evil ways, repent of your sins, cease to do evil, and then the good seed of the word will have room to grow and bear fruit."

Definition of fallow      Webster 

1 : usually cultivated land that is allowed to lie idle during the growing season

2 obsolete : plowed land

3 : the state or period of being fallow Summer fallow is effective for destroying weeds.

4: the tilling of land without sowing it for a season

Ezekiel 37:1-14 New International Version (NIV)

The Valley of Dry Bones

37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath^[a] enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord."

I envisioned our lives as land that has in the past produced good fruit in God's Kingdom and like many people do, we grow tired and at times get discouraged by circumstances. We tell ourselves to rest from doing good or working for the Lord. Then once where there was fruit, the land (heart) gets choked by complacency . The weeds of life choke off a productive heart. We see the field of our hearts and begin to believe that it's too much work to clean out the weeds and get that heart pumping again for God and others. We are deceived by believing that God cannot restore our hearts and get us going again.
 This is a lie and far from the truth. With men things are impossible. With God all things are possible. I found myself reading more in my Bible and then I prayed through a passage of Scripture in Ezekiel. I realized that I have not been fired up for God in a long time. My efforts have been like dry dead bones. My land (heart) has been fallow land. I prayed that this guy would come back to life spiritually. How about you? Is the land of your heart fallow or barren?

Marty