A few days ago, dear brother Harold came to till my garden spot. What a blessing! There’s something about spring and new life that causes my spirit to dance. I have a passion for gardening, both vegetable and flower gardens. It blesses me beyond measure to plant “dead” seeds and tiny, fragile plants, add a little water and prayer and watch God cause them to erupt into the purpose He created them for, bearing beautiful, delicious fruit! Each year, before time to plant, I often stop by my little 20′ X 7′ tilled area and reflect on God’s goodness with a great big smile. There’s something so exciting about a freshly tilled empty space of land just waiting to receive all the seeds and plants I can stuff into it! So eager is that ancient ground to do just what God called it to do…to be a platform for God’s beautiful living things to grow. 

As I stood there in the cool dogwood wintery breeze, I was reminded of the spring some ten years ago when a tiller or tractor was no where to be found, so my dad and I took on the challenge to hand-dig a large garden spot out of grassy sod with old, weathered tools. We worked hard and it certainly took more than one work session, but we got it done and planted and God provided the harvest. We talked, laughed, puffed, and even fell down on the ground a few times. It was a dear memory that I will forever hold dear.

As I looked at my yet-to-be planted garden this evening snapping pictures, I realized that the human heart is much like that old rectangle of dirt. So often, we ask God for things and we ask Him to help us grow, and yet we do so from a heart that is hard, compromised, and unprepared to receive what He has to give us. And so, I was forced to ask myself, “Is my heart really ready to receive what God wants to do in and for me? Am I prepared?”. It is a challenging thought, indeed. I was able to survey my own heart a little closer and ask God to make it as a freshly tilled field, loose, soft, pliable and under the best condition to receive the seeds He wants to plant, nurture and grow within. I was awestruck afresh at the beauty of preparation. When God prepares us for the “next step” on His agenda, it can be a painful, yet joyful time. One day He reminded me so clearly that the “meat” of the journey is in the preparation, not the end result. It is in the preparation, the tilling up of hardened lumpy clay in our hearts, that we learn so much, are refined as gold, and made stronger in our walk with Him. It is in the preparation season that we often pray without ceasing, seek Him with all of our hearts and FIND Him, hunger and thirst for more of Jesus as in a parched land. He is proven ever true and faithful in the times of preparing and waiting for a harvest. So much so, that our confidence in Him soars to new levels of unwavering. We may feel the pangs of the turning tractor blades, but our spirits grow stouter and we endure by His grace, knowing that He is preparing us for something glorious! It is also a time when ugly critters inside may rise to the surface and we’re not sure what to do with them, but our Master Gardener is so willing and eager to gently plucks them out, making us to look more and more like His dream for us from the beginning!

We can read the Bible all day, go to church services, say our ritualistic prayers, but at the end of the day, if these things do not fall upon or come from a well prepared, well worked, Holy Spirit fertilized heart, then how can we expect to grow? Even the best seeds on poor soil surrounded by choking weeds have little hope of thriving at all and even less hope of producing fruit.

My desire is to receive all the life-filled seeds God plants in me with joy into a heart that is steadfast and pliable. Won’t you ask God for the same kind of abandoned heart?

As I wrapped up my reflection on the beautiful earth before me, God gave me another picture in my mind. I saw a tired, weary, yet enduring soul walking slowly across a very large tilled field. She was shedding tears nearly every step of the way as she looked closely to the ground for a sign of the harvest she had planted in faith and prayed for. The Scripture “They that sew tears will reap joy”(Psalm 126:5)  pierced my heart and I was overwhelmed by this beautiful thing God was showing to me!

He whispered to my heart that it was the tears of this enduring soul that would actually give her seeds the water they needed to grow! That is why she will return to the land and find lush plants and abundant fruit. It will bring God the highest glory and will be worked for her very best(Romans 8:28). It is a guarantee! She had already sewn her seeds. Her tears of sorrow, question,  repentance, and weariness watered the ground unknowingly and were used as the tool to hasten the harvest of joy, just as a day of spring showers seem to make the grass grow overnight.

Dear friend, if you are sewing seeds of faith and obedience in the Lord, do not despair if you experience seasons of weeping and pain. Your tears are a vital part of the journey and the preparation. You will surely reap joy!

Abba Father, help Your children who desire to have Your heart always be ready to receive. Fill us with Your precious Holy Spirit daily that we may be prepared and equipped for all You long to give us and do through us. Encourage and comfort our hearts with the truth that our difficult days and tear-filled nights will give way to beauty and joy, if we endure and faint not.