Farmers of the soul

Matthew 9:37-38

37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Christ often used the image of fields, and the work of farmers. There is a good reason for that you know. That is what I want to talk about today….Farming. Have you ever known a farmer? Or maybe a person that really loves gardening? They are unique people. I remember driving by huge corn fields when I was a kid, and I remember thinking, Man, what a job! You must have to be the most patience trusting, hard working person in the world to be a farmer!

When it comes to our spiritual lives we would do well to model our lives after farming. There are very specific steps that have to be followed. There are no shortcuts, and you can’t do the last step without doing the first! To be a successful farmer you can’t just go buy a bunch of equipment and go harvest your field. Not by a long shot! There is a ton of work to do first. In the same way, we can’t just go out and reap the rewards that the Lord has to offer with out first putting in the work. So what are the steps? Well let’s take a look.

First you have to work the ground. A farmer has to get out there every day and till the land, he has to break the ground open, and turn the soil. It is a dirty grimy job, dirt is flying in the air all day, and it hangs to everything. Imagine how pointless that must seem! Acers of land lying out in front of him, and he is out there relentlessly dragging equipment behind the tractor, kicking up dust, and making a mess! If you were just to glance at him while he was working it might look like he is just wasting his time. A bunch of work going on but no payoff. But the farmer knows better, he knows that he has to get the soil turned, he has to get the rows cut. If he does not the harvest will never come in right. It will be sporadic, and only a small portion of what he plants will take root.

Sound familiar? Walking with Christ is no different! We have a lot of work to do in our hearts and in our lives before anything will grow. We have to take the proverbial hoe to our hearts and turn the soil; we have to prepare our hearts and our lives for the gifts of the Lord. That comes by way of prayer, and by searching out our hearts for all of the rocks and getting them out of our field! We can’t come to Christ, unless we know who Christ is. We cannot come to know Christ unless we search Him out in our lives. The best place to start looking for Christ is on your knees! We as a society do not spend enough time in prayer. It is the most powerful, yet most overlooked tool we have been given. Could you imagine a farmer passing up a tractor, and saying “naaa that’s ok I’ll just use this hoe” of course not! Yet that is exactly what we do when we pass on prayer, and go out in to the world thinking that everything will be just peachy. Time and time a gain in the Bible one of the most repeated things people do is pray. David, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah, all of the apostles, John the Baptist, Isaiah, and this is just a few! Christ himself not only prayed, but gave us a prayer to pray! Amazing things happened in these men’s lives and it all started with prayer! I urge each of you to incorporate prayer into your lives, as a foundation of your day. It is vital in the process.

Another great place to “till” the soil of the soul is found in the pages of the Bible. I cannot stress the importance of this in your life. It has been said that you can read the same Bible your whole life, and never read the same book twice. I firmly believe that! It might sound strange at first, but I promise you that the same person never picks up that Bible. Everyday we find ourselves in different circumstances, and facing different challenges. Each time you pick the Bible, up a different part will speak to you that you did not notice that day or the week or the year before! I have read the Bible many times cover to cover, and each time there is something I did not see last time! It is truly the Word of God, and it will speak to you each time you open it. If you start each day off with prayer, and a quick read through the Bible you will find that you have truly laid the foundation of a Great day!

The last thing we have to do to prep our spiritual field is to get down and pick out the rocks. This is the dirty part! We all have rocks in our field, toxic relationships, sin, poor choices that we make, selfishness, greed. Each of our fields has a little different type of rock, but we all have to really work to get them out of our fields. A seed will not root if the soil is full of rocks! Some rocks are bigger than others, some you can reach down and just fling to the side, but we all have those big rocks that we have to go to the shed and break out the sledge hammer, and the breaker bar on. We have to break them down to manageable pieces. The best tools to use for that are prayer, and faith. Pray that the Lord helps you remove those rocks, and most importantly Faith that He will!! The Lord will help you turn the soil, but you have to give Him the room to work, you have to have the faith that he will!!

Peace,
Brian