The Plow
Greetings,
“Still another said, “I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 61-62
Jesus is known for His hard sayings and this one ranks right up there, but what is Jesus really saying to us in this passage? He says if we put our hand to the plow and look back we are not fit for the Kingdom. But what are we plowing? I feel this speaks of plowing and preparing for service our very own hearts.
Hardness of heart keeps us from hearing and putting into practice what Jesus wants us to do and be. A hard heart can separate us from His love and direction. Jesus wants our hearts to be soft and able to receive, cultivate, and put into action Spiritual truths. According to the parable of the Sower His seeds of truth do not grow and produce fruit on rocky and hard soil. (Matt. 13) So what are we supposed to do when we find ourselves with a heart of stone?
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your fallow (hardened) ground; for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes.” Hosea 10:12
For us to be able to walk in HIS righteousness and fully experience HIS unfailing love we MUST keep our hand to the plow of our very own heart and continually break up our fallow ground. Jesus wants our hearts to be soft and able to produce a great harvest of love and truth to benefit both ourselves and others who are seeking Him. To Jesus this is more important than burying and saying goodbye to our family and loved ones. A soft heart is able to receive HIS truth and love, then produce a bounty of Spiritual fruit. When our hearts are soft the fruit we bear can help sustain the Body of Christ and also attract those hungry to be set free and follow Jesus.
I put my hand to the plow of my heart over 42 years ago and even though I struggle at times; I have never looked back. If you really want to press forward deeper into the things of God just place your hand on that plow and allow Him to make the difference in your heart and life each and every day. Remember this is your hand, your plow, and your heart. A Pastor or someone else can’t do this for you. It is your choice, your action and your life. So go for it!
Love and …..
Kirk Out !
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Chris, I haven’t written in a long time as we measure time, however I read your encouraging blogs on a regular basis. The Lord really put it on my own plowed heart to tell you that the truth of this blog really encouraged me and revealed His truth. Thanks for sharing how much we need to keep asking Jesus to keep our hearts plowed. I know how my garden soil hardens over and makes the weeds harder to pull when I neglect plowing it!
Love You Brother,
Ken
Thank you for your affirmation and encouragement Ken. Love you brother.
Once again I must apologize for the formatting of this blog post. WordPress would not allow me to publish this post with proper paragraph breaks. However, I was able to add extreme indentations to hopefully make this post easier to read.
Maintaining a soft heart seems in my case to require pretty much daily asking. Miss a day, and I find my mind forming harsh thoughts to various daily encounters.
That’s right Tom,as Paul wrote…”I die daily.” By choice may I add.
Amen .. I find I need the daily prayer in my mind all day reading and association & die to self….other wise I am depressed seeing how violent the people in the world are . Seeing innocent people hurt. It’s all in Mathew 24. Thanks for sharing .
Tom n I have something like the flu in our chests. Coughing up and achy. Went to Dr . Got meds .
Hope all stay well and encouraged as we all go through same things
Thanks for sharing that word of confirmation Judy. I will be praying for you and Tom.
really good stuff, Chris. I think we’re on the same page regarding Jesus’ parable of the sower. Some xians interpret it in a deterministic, Calvinist way: that unless you’re heart is already receptive to the seed, the Gospel will not and cannot take root. But I read it as the 3 types of soil which start off “bad” can all be transformed into “good soil”. The weeds can be pulled out, the field stones can be removed and the hard, stomped-on path (which refers to so many of us). can be tilled and made soft. We’re not stuck. And that’s good news!
That is good news Gary,thanks for sharing!
Great comments, Gary! And let’s not forget the seed that got eaten by the birds of the air…..they are most likely ‘pooped’ out onto some better soil elsewhere! 🙂 Love, “BK”
LOL, good one BK!
Complete with fertilizer! 🙂
BK, thanks for making me laugh today.
What do you think that ‘plow’ to help fallow hard stones in heart/life so that it would be softened?
Mercy, perhaps Faith, Hope and Love.