Break Up Your Fallow Ground

This is from The Christian Excavator blog:

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. Hosea 10:12-13

In this passage God tells His people to break up their fallow ground. Fallow means to be unplowed or uncultivated. It describes a field that has been let go or neglected. Spiritually it describes a heart that has become complacent and unbroken.

My children and grandchildren will reap the iniquity and the “fruit of lies” that several generations of complacent Christians have allowed this nation to sow. I sometimes find it hard to believe how far our nation has plunged. Because of the indoctrination of our school system and the steady corrupting influence of the media most people cannot even discern right from wrong.

“It is time to seek the Lord” Like the people in Hosea’s day we have “plowed wickedness” and then act like we are shocked when we reap iniquity. We have trusted in our own way instead of seeking the Lord.

A.W. Tozer said concerning this passage;

“The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow. Safe and undisturbed, it sprawls lazily in the sunshine, the picture of sleepy contentment… But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility; never does it feel the motions of mounting life, nor see the wonders of bursting seed, nor the beauty of ripening grain. FRUIT IT CAN NEVER KNOW, BECAUSE IT IS AFRAID OF THE PLOW AND THE HARROW… In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken.” 

We have been complacent long enough. We have avoided the plow for too long. Our smug faces need to be washed with tears. Many church doors will close…it is just a matter of time. A lot of churches are just a couple funerals away from extinction.

We need to beg God to plow our hearts. It is true that God will always have a remnant. He will always have His churches. He will always have a people on this earth until He returns…they just may not be here in America. {Some statistics say that 4000 churches shut their doors in America every year}

I had heard several years ago that some countries in the “far east” were preparing to send Christian missionaries to America. A walk through any mall or shopping center reveals how heathen we have become.

Do you really want God to pour out His Spirit on your church, in your community?  Are you prepared for the plow to run through the middle of your undisturbed heart? Do you really want God to plow your fallow ground?

“Lord, prepare my heart to receive thy word, that it may be like the good ground, or I shall be undone for ever. Let my heart be broken up and prepared by thy plough. That I may have a good, an upright and sincere heart.” – Benjamin Keach, Baptist Preacher, Horse-lie-down, Southwark, London {1640-1704}