Check the Soil of Your Heart

One of the first things a Gardener does when planting a garden is test the soil’s condition, ensuring that the seed will take root.

What is the condition of your heart soil?

In Matthew 13, God likens the condition of our heart to 4 types of soil, describing what happens when the Seed of His word is planted there.

The Message Bible describes it well.

14-15″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.

 16-17″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.

 18-19″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.

 20″But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”

Conditions of Heart Soil

1. Hard soil (weeds planted fall by the wayside and the birds pluck them up). Satan steals it.
2. Rocky soil (seed can’t take root). Satan brings persecution and trials to wither it.
3. Thorny soil (weeds – anxieties of life and deceitfulness of wealth) choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.
4. Soft, fertile soil (seed takes root) and produces a harvest.

When was the last time you checked the condition of your heart? Is the Word of God taking root — do you remember and act on what God teaches you through His Word? What does your harvest look like?

Surveying the land of your heart should be done on a regular basis. I have found journaling and prayer to be an effective way to check what is in my heart and to guard it. Unless the Seed of God’s Word grows, you won’t bear fruit.

Jer. 4:3 says to plow up the hardness of your heart or the seed will be wasted among thorns.

The condition of your heart is your responsibility.

Guard your heart above all else for it determines the course of your life. Prov. 4:23 NLT

Take time today and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the condition of your heart.

In Ezekiel 36:26, God promises to take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh!