Spring is just around the corner! Many of us are already thinking about what we will plant or starting plants from seeds in preparation. However, to grow a healthy plant, you have to make sure you have healthy soil. This reality also applies to our spiritual health.
Evaluating Your Mind and Heart’s Soil is Crucial
Jesus taught people in parables that incorporated everyday life. He shared a parable of how vital it is for us to know the condition of the soil in our minds and hearts. Let’s read Christ’s parable now.
“The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.
“And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
“The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
“But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.” (Mark 4:14-20, MSG)
In the last verse, Jesus is clear that we must hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest. What we hear, believe, and act on will produce a harvest of good or bad. We must make sure what we put into our minds and hearts come from God’s word and truth. There is no way to have a beautiful garden with a mind full of weeds and junk. We can’t grow anything good with a hardened heart or without deep roots that will withstand our life’s worries, emotions, and circumstances.
Questions About Your Mind and Heart’s Soil
As we begin a new year, it’s time to make sure that we work with Jesus to produce a harvest beyond our wildest dreams from the seeds of God’s word we hear, study, and meditate on. We all have a choice to work with Jesus or to live a self-focused life full of unhealthy soil. A garden’s soil needs to be evaluated at least once a year. Take time to think about the following questions. Pray about them and answer them with a plan of action.
- What is the condition of the soil in your heart right now, and how can Jesus help you?
- What is the condition of the soil in your mind right now, and how can Jesus help you?
- What do the fruits of your life reveal? Do you need to work on love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, or self-control?
- What steps will you take with Jesus every day to create good soil in your mind and heart?
Jesus is Waiting to Help You
The most important thing to God and Jesus is our heart. They desire most of all to dwell in our hearts and share every aspect of our lives. However, living in complete surrender and obedience to God goes against our sin-influenced human condition. When you choose to be a disciple of Christ, you must be intentional to talk and work with him every day.
When Jesus chose to come to earth, he showed us that it was possible for people to love, surrender, obey, and serve God with all their heart. Jesus wants us to walk with him and let him teach us how to continually grow to be more like Him as we follow his ways. Will you follow, grow, and imitate Jesus?
“My son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” (1 Chor. 28:9, NLT)
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. (2 Cor. 3:18, NLT)
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Prov. 4:23, NIV)
