It’s Time – Past Time By David Maddox
The Lord through the Prophet Hosea reminds us that it is our responsibility to see to the condition of the Spiritual soil in our hearts. He writes:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that He may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
(Hosea 10:12)
Jesus in the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:13-20) warned us of the activity of the enemy when we or others hear – read- or even remember the Word of God. He said that Satan “immediately comes” to take away or destroy the Word sown. He explains how seed planted in all but one kind of soil is destroyed by Satan before it can produce any fruit (in the person or in others). What kind of soil are you allowing to exist in your heart?
Hard soil describes the doubters and those who do not embrace or seek to understand God’s Word. Soil in which no root can be produced is soil of one who falls away when any opposition or difficulty arises because of God’s Word – this Believer embraces tolerance and spends his life in fear that he will be judgmental. Soil which allows God’s Word to be choked is soil which has provided space for the growth of thorns which Jesus describes as “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things”. Only the good soil- which Jesus says is the heart that hears the Word “and accepts it” – produces fruit. Of that one who has tended the soil of his heart such that it is good we have the promise that God will use them to bear fruit “thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold”. If you are not bearing much fruit – here is why. You have not tended the soil of your heart. The Prophet Hosea had it right – it is time (past time) to break up the fallow ground of the soil of your heart and seek the Lord.
About David Maddox – After a legal career in both Texas and Arizona that spanned over 40 years as a civil litigator, God called David to leave his law practice and work full time as Discipleship Director for Time to Revive. That call is really the fruit of decades of prayer for revival and teaching God’s Word, writing discipleship materials and seeking to make disciples. David married Janet Whitehead in 1976 and they minister together from their Phoenix home. God has blessed them with four children and thus far seven grandchildren.
