Every farmer knows that even more important than the seed is the preparation of the soil. It must have the proper sun exposure and drainage, the ph balance has to be tested. Before you plant your first seed, you must be sure that your soil is good. I need all the help I can get because unlike some of my friends, I don’t have a green thumb. Different seed, different soil. But if you want the optimal nutritional value from your food, it must be planted in the correct soil. Not only that, but after you plant it, it needs to be fertilized, watered, weeded and cared for. Then, there’s the harvest of what you’ve planted. You don’t want everything in your garden to ripen at the same time because that would be a canning/freezing nightmare. Nobody has time for all that!

Often in the scriptures, Jesus talked in parables of farming because they were things that common people understood. So this morning while reading about how you don’t put new wine into old wine skins or patch old clothing with new fabric that hasn’t been shrunken first, I asked the Lord what he was referring to and somehow, I felt it was about our mindsets or hearts. I turned to Ephesians 3:16-19 GNT and found Paul saying; I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know his love—although it can never be fully known—and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.

“I pray that you may have your roots and foundations in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love.” The soil of our hearts must be love to understand the love of God. If our soil isn’t right, than our produce won’t be right. New heart of love. Ezekiel 11:19, ^“I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.” Our old mindset cannot receive the nature of God, but he said to renew our minds by watering it with the Word. Gardens don’t produce without water, neither does our hearts produce without the Word of God.

The other key ingredient was the Holy Spirit; “to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves.” The Spirit is key to distributing or giving understanding to our new minds. He’s the one that leads us into all truth. He gives us good harvest. The soil must be love and God is Love. God is the Master Gardner and His harvest will be souls, but only if we surrender ourselves to the new soil of Love. We can do and do and do good things but if we are not prompted by love, our harvest will be perverted and puny. Let’s get our soil right so our harvest will be plentiful.