It’s Time to Tend to the Soil

In James 1:19-21 I read, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” (NIV)

Gardeners know that you can take the exact same seed and plant it in three different locations and get three different results. In one spot, you may get giant tomatoes. In another, you may get small tomatoes. And in a third, you may not get anything at all. What’s the difference? It’s not the seed; it’s the soil. The soil must be prepared for the seed. 

The same is true when I hear God’s Word. My heart has to be prepared for the Word. 

Church service is a great example of this. If I get up late, have trouble finding a parking spot, and are irritated as I rush into church, I’m probably not going to hear God’s voice! My heart is not prepared to receive God’s Word. 

That’s why two people may go to the same church service, sit side by side, and hear the same Scripture read and sermon preached. One will walk out thinking God really spoke to them, and the other won’t get anything at all out of the service. The heart of one person was prepared; the other’s heart wasn’t.

The Bible says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (James 1:19-21 NIV).

Scripture teaches that, for my heart to be prepared to receive God’s Word, I need to have four attitudes:

Be quiet. I can’t hear God if I’m talking. 

Be calm. I can’t rush God. If I’m frantic, I’m not going to hear him. The Bible says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” My translation of that is, “Sit down, and be quiet.”

Be clean. Before I can meet with God, I need to confess my sin to him and ask him for forgiveness.

Be humble. Be ready to do whatever God tells me from his Word. A prideful attitude won’t work. 

So the next time I’m going to spend time in God’s Word—whether that’s at church or in my quiet time at home—take time first to prepare my heart. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes!

In my life, I’m often in a hurry, living based on a schedule. I quickly want to move through things to get to the other things.  I’ll need to consider allocating more time for the task. I need to prepare my heart. I have also just been so quick to jump into a quiet time study, that I’m not thinking about or considering my sins and asking for forgiveness. The best thing I can do is to allocate more time to what’s important, not just thinking of the task but time to prepare my heart.