10250 North Freeway @
West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
The Soil of the Heart
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1986
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
"Keeping the Soil of You Heart Soft and Workable"
Jeremiah 4:3-4
It is one thing to break up the clods of your heart once they begin to form; it is another thing to keep them from forming in the first place. Oh, it's wonderful to break up old hard, crusty ground, but it's far better to keep the soil of your heart tilled so that it just stays soft and workable. In both, Jeremiah 4:3 and Hosea 10:12, God says, "Break up your fallow ground." Since fallow ground is ground that is plowed and harrowed, but not seeded, then I understand God to be telling us to keep our soft ground soft. Keep the heart soft and workable.
VI. I Now Call Your Attention To Four Steps You Can Take Which Will Help Keep Your Heart Tender, Soft and Free of the Hardness Which Renders Men So Barren.
A. Stay humble.
1. To humble means to abase or bring low. Humility is a condition of the heart and is akin to meekness, tenderness and lowliness. One whose heart is humble is one who is unassuming, modest, unpretentious and poor in spirit.
As you can doubtless see, a truly humble one is the opposite of one who is proud, cynical, cold and hard-hearted. Humility and hard-heartedness just can't co-exist. Where humility is, hardness can't stay. Humbling yourself is kind of like adding spiritual mulch to the soil of your heart. The more you till it in, the more pliable and workable, soft and tender your heart becomes.
2. The Bible says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up," in James 4:10. I Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."
You say, "Well, I'll depend on the Lord to keep me humble." Well sir, He can and may through very drastic measures. I tell you that it is far, far better that you humble yourself. That's what these scriptures say, "Humble yourselves," don't wait for the Lord to have to do it for you. It's the difference between waiting for the Lord to break up your hard clods as opposed to keeping your heart soft and tender, and the latter is far better than the former.
3. In fact, Proverbs 16:19 says, "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud."
One of the reasons that is true is the fact that its just a matter of time until the proud will be busted. Verse 18 says so. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Our God "giveth grace unto the humble," according to James 4:6, but He is also a great sod-buster. The heart that stays soft and workable, He doesn't have to break, but the one that hardens itself becomes the target of His wrath. Thus Jesus said, "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted," in Matthew 23:12.
God said in Isaiah 10:33, the "haughty shall be humbled," but He also said in Proverbs 29:23, "honour shall uphold the humble in spirit."
4. Sir, do you want to keep the soil of your soul from clodding and setting up like concrete? Do you want to keep soft and tender and lovely, and not turn to a cantankerous ole bear who is full of negativeness, bitterness and sarcastic scorn? Then, stay humble! "This poor (humble) man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles," says Psalm 34:6.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," says Matthew 5:3. Yes sir, stay humble!
B. Keep your eyes on the Lord.
1. As I've told you, very often the things that harden us are the things we've seen or experienced at the hands of other people. We've been so hurt and disappointed, so let down and disillusioned, so we've built up big thick walls to insulate us against further hurt. We've tempered and mortared those walls to make them as hard and strong a defence as we can. We don't trust anybody anymore. "They stung me once, but they won't do it again."
Did you ever see a cocoon? That larvae has wrapped and re-wrapped himself. He is really insulated against most of the things he thinks will hurt him. That's the way the hurts, disappointments and offenses of life will make us once we get to focusing our mental eye on people, things and circumstances. My, we can get hard in our efforts to insulate ourselves. Our spiritual ground gets so hard and calloused.
2. You say, "But preacher, I don't want that. I want to stay soft and warm and tender in my heart. I don't want to lose my trust and become negative, critical and suspicious of everybody and everything. I don't want an evil eye where I'm always expecting the worst. How can I avoid it?"
The answer is simple. Keep your eyes upon Jesus. Hebrews 12:15 puts it in the clearest of terms. "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." Looking where? "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2).
3. Folks, I cannot begin to adequately explain to you what a wonderful thing it is to keep your eyes on Jesus. I don't understand why that so successfully keeps the heart tender and soft, but it does. How can I get hard and critical for what I have to endure when he "endured the cross" with all its shame and injustice at the hands of foul sinners? (Hebrews 12:2-3). Why should I complain and insulate myself so when I don't even belong to myself. I belong to Jesus. I've been redeemed, bought with a price, even the precious blood of Jesus. (I Peter 1:18-19). I don't even belong to myself. I'm God's property. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I see people as His, not mine. I see Him as the righteous judge, not me. He's the avenger of evil and the one to whom men must ultimately answer. Boy, a realization of that truth is like good medicine. It frees me of hatred, revenge, bitterness and frustrations, the very things that harden the heart like hardener in resin. The Bible promises, "Great peace have they which love thy law; and nothing shall offend them," in Psalms 119:165.
4. I wish you could have known a certain farmer of some years ago. Things went so very wrong for him. There was a long drought, and his fruit trees all failed to bear. His crops were a disaster, and his baby calves and sheep died. He suffered about every disaster that can ruin a farmer, yet he said, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." His name was Habakkuk, and you can read of him in Habakkuk 3:17-18. How could he do it? He kept his eyes on the Lord.
C. Pray often.
1. Brother, sister you need divine help. You can't do what I'm talking about by your own strength. As determined as you are, and as good as your intentions are, you will fail if you try to keep your heart soft by the energy of your own flesh.; Your only hope is in the Lord. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord," Zechariah 4:6 says. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves...but our sufficiency is of God," II Corinthians 3:5 says.
2. I can appreciate your desire to stay soft and workable in your heart. That's so good and commendable, but you can't do it. When Joshua stood before Israel just before he died, he challenged them to serve the Lord. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve," he encouraged in Joshua 24:15. The people responded back in verse 18, we will "serve the Lord; for he is our God." But Joshua said unto the people, "Ye cannot serve the Lord," in verse 19.
No sir! In the strength of self-will and the energy of their flesh, they couldn't, and neither can you! Your only hope is in the Lord. You'll have to have divine power in your life, or you will fail. Without the power of God in you, somebody will step on your rubber tail, they won't perform to suit you, or you'll grow proud or legalistic, and you'll start giving lipservice to the truth while doing things your way, or in some other way your heart will set up like soft mortar turning to cement. It'll happen in spite of your best intentions and affirmations that it will never happen.
3. Bother, sister, you'd better stay on your knees before God. If you are going to stay on the straight and narrow, it'll be because you yielded to Him and gave Him the reigns of your heart. It'll not be because you're so great, but it'll be because He's so great, and you got out of the way and let Him take over your life.
No wonder God says, "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou, shalt glorify me," in Psalms 50:15. Jesus said "Men ought always to pray," in Luke 18:1. Paul said "Pray without ceasing," in I Thessalonians 5:17.
Pray God to keep you soft. Pray God to deliver you from hard-heartedness. Pray that He will break you when He first sees the clods forming. Pray brother. You can't make it without the help of God. As you lean on and yield to Him, He can keep the soil of your heart a great freshly tilled field.
D. Be a doer of the Word.
1. Don't just go to your Bible or to your Sunday school class to see how smart it'll make you or to fulfill duty or soothe your conscience. Come with every intention of implementing immediately all that is given to you. "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves," James 1:22 says.
2. Do what the Word says. Do it when you feel like it, and do it when you don't feel like it. Don't wait until you agree with it to do it. Its right and ought to be done whether you agree or not. Don't wait until you understand it or not. "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," says I Samuel 15:22.
"Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts," encourages Hebrews 3:7-8.
3. It's amazing how the plow of God's Word continually piercing the soil of the heart tends to dip it well cultivated, soft and supple. When it stays that way, God can use it to produce great and fruitful crops of righteousness in our lives. What a blessed condition that is. That's when our lives effectively constitute the "ground" of the truth as mentioned in I Timothy 3:15. That's when His good seed can produce great crops in us, in some an hundredfold, in others sixty fold, and in still others, thirtyfold as Jesus said in Matthew 13:23. Soft, workable hearts, that's what God wants as the rule, not the exception.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"