For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns Jer 4:3

What would become of seed scattered upon ground not broken up and not tilled and spread among the weeds and the thorns? In the parable of the sower and the seed in Matt 13 Jesus explains that the seed sown among the thorns is the man who hears the word of God but the cares of this world and the pursuit of its riches choke out that word and the seed dies. Fallow ground, fields that have not been broken up and tilled, cannot produce fruit. Only hearts that have been broken, tilled, turned over and made ready can be productive for God.

The average man today who professes to be a Christian has a heart that is like a field that is unbroken and fallow. He scatters seeds upon it and then wonders why it does not yield a crop. A generation or more of professing Christians have been raised on a steady teaching of cheap grace to be saved and hyper grace to be sanctified. None of this represents the broken-hearted saints who follow the risen Christ and surrender to the purifying process whereby Jesus creates His own special people.. A people who every day arise and take up their cross and follow Him. To take up your cross in this instance it to be plowed. The heart must be tested, it must be broken, it must yield to the Master’s hand. It must endure suffering and trials. Each furrow in the field is a trial endured by the saint and overcome by the power and the glory of the risen Christ. Into this field, into these furrows the Lord will scatter more seed. And because it is a work of the Lord this field will produce fruit.

Saint, do not resist the testings of the Lord. If you desire to be fruitful then you must allow the field of your heart to be broken up, to be plowed and to be furrowed for the removing of the weeds and the thorns and the clods. Let every suffering saint glorify the Lord in the midst of this plowing knowing that this surrender, this yielding to the hand of God is for the sanctification of his soul and that he may be useful in the Master’s hand. Every true saint wants to produce good fruit. Even nature tells us that there is no other way to produce fruit from a field than for it to be tilled and to be plowed. Saint, do you wish to be fruitful? Then today, yield and rejoice in the fact that you have been counted worthy to be plowed.