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Listen while you read: "We Plow The Fields"1 (Lyrics) |
Harvest season has come to the Ottawa valley, and most of the crops have now been gathered, as the winds become cold and clouds scud across the fall skies. Yet, some fields still carry their corn and soybean crops, as the farmers wait for clear days to dry the crop before harvesting. The Canada geese gather in the bare fields, feasting on the leftovers before the winter cold drives them south in long V-shaped squadrons.
Have you ever thought of yourself as a farmer, even a part-time one? In the prophet Hosea's time, everyone grew their own food, even if they were in other lines of work. Being a farmer himself, Hosea used farming analogies to urge his nation to change its harvest practices. Israel had sown the bad seeds of idolatry and injustice, and was reaping a harvest of judgment.
Hosea 10:12 – Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you. (NASB 1995)
If Hosea were among us part-time farmers today, what would he say? Just as in his day, what we sow in our lives today, we will reap in the harvest. Our thoughts, like seeds, produce actions, which become behaviour patterns and habits, and these grow in the fields of our lives. A heart hardened to God's love could be compared with fallow ground, not plowed, and resistant to the sowing of the seed of the gospel. So how do we break up the fallow ground of the unrepentant, hardened hearts of those around us? By seeking the Lord now, working on softening them, and keeping at it until they receive the seed, and the ripe harvest of God's love and mercy grows.
God will bring His rain of righteousness, but remember, the harvest is a full season away! We are not to give up blessing, being kind, and witnessing to others, knowing that the fruitful season is coming.
Prayer: We come to You with thanksgiving for the changing seasons and the blessed harvest that You grant to our farmlands. Bless us also as we seek to prepare our own hearts and those around us for Your rain of righteousness. Amen.
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Thanks for the good word, Shirley.
Thank-you Shirley, I needed that today!
Thank you for that Shirley. Really fitting for this Thanksgiving Day.
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us. Blessings.
Thank you for your writing.
I need to break the fallow ground in my own heart.
Blessings.
Thank you, Shirley, for your very mindful and deep meaning words today. The Lord truly gives much beauty, not only to our present land and lives, but to our future with Him. Blessings for the writings you prepare.
What a wonderful lesson, analogy. I’m always wanting to have more influence on my neighbours who don’t know the LORD. Loving and caring is as far as I’ve gotten and it feels so unsatisfactory; however, it may be God’s way, and so I just keep on going. Bless you for sharing.
Good morning, Shirley,
Thank you for this picture view today, for me being raised in Brockville, so many visions came back.
This is so true of the Word… what we sow we reap. Praying we are all ready for “the rain.”
God bless.
Good morning, Alice,
With this title on today I thought it was going to be a message from an American on their Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed your message using Hosea 10:12 and thinking of myself as a farmer and that I can make a difference by softening the fallow ground so the seed can germinate. A good message of not giving up and continuing to bless, be kind, and witness in order to soften the ground for others and for ourselves. I do think of myself as a little farmer with my vegetable garden and as a gardener with my flower beds, so this touched me. I think I follow my dad as a little farmer and my mom as a gardener and my mom’s family were truly farmers. They both had strong faiths and were always helping others. Thanks for sharing and enjoy the harvest. Blessings.
What a wonderful and timely reminder of the analogy of faĺĺ farming to the way we live our lives. I particularly appreciated the encouragement to not give up being loving and kind towards “fallow ground” people. I suspect many readers are ĺike me and have loved ones who are spiritually like hard ground. Thank you for the encouragement to carry on and to continue myself to live closely with the Lord and to not give up loving “fallow ground” people.
Thank you, Shirley. I guess I am a farmer!
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us. Blessings.