August 1, 2023

Scripture: Hosea 10:12 – “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.”

What it means

Lots of agricultural references in this passage of scripture from the prophet Hosea – guess this is for Erich 😊 There are many passages from the scriptures that exhort us to sow righteousness for ourselves, but this is the only one that has the reference of breaking up our unplowed ground. I guess we can interpret that as we all have unplowed ground in our lives – some more than others – and we should be encouraged that we all have untapped potential…parts of our lives that we have never “plowed” and gotten ready for The Lord. We may go through seasons of feeling like we’re all dried up and have no use anymore…particularly for those of us who are a bit older, but again…be encouraged. As long as you have breath remaining, God ain’t done with you yet, so break up your unplowed ground…because He will shower His righteousness on us!

What it means to me

No shocker here, but I’m not exactly the outdoorsy, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy that Erich is, but in watching Jan’s father and our brother-in-law Kenneth, I’ve discovered the importance of preparing the land for whatever crop you hope to reap – potatoes, garden vegetables, etc. If you don’t invest the time to break up the hard soil, then your harvest will be greatly diminished. The same holds true for us in our spiritual life – we need to take a page from the movie Facing the Giants in “preparing our fields for rain”. God will provide the fruit and the harvest – but we need to make sure that our fields are ready to receive them.

Love you guys, talk to you on Thursday!

In Christ,

Brian