Original Entry: July 22, 2008
McMinnville, OR
Sow for yourselves
righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your
unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers
righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12
Do not be
deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps
what he sows. The one who sows to
please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who
sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8
One of our
challenges when backpacking is to find a camp close to water, cover and on
level ground. On one trip we hiked into
an area at nearly 8000 feet and at the head of a large basin. There were no
springs on the map and the entire bowl was severely sloped. After searching
through several small conifer patches we located a grove of about 6 trees that
would fit our one man tents. We could
have easily thrown our tents down, set them up and walked away except for the
problem of slope. The entire area sloped
downhill requiring us to level out the area by kicking away the high ground.
FYI: Use the toe of your boot or a stick and not the side of the foot in order
to protect the knee. Only by breaking up the ground were we able to live on a
balanced foundation.
Hosea 10:12 lists certain prerequisites for when it
is “time to seek the Lord” that help
a man find level ground. Those three particulars are sow, reap, and break up
your unplowed ground. Part of a man’s
pursuit of God is to “sow…righteousness”,
which includes making all horizontal (earthly) relationships healthy while
seeking vertical holiness by trusting our lives to the one true God (John
14:6-7). To seek any other is not
seeking righteousness but error.
The result
of seeking righteousness is to “reap the
fruit of unfailing love.” In other
words, a man is able to experience God in a deep and personal way only when he
seeks Him. God is not a beggar and he
certainly does not need you or me. Truth
is often lonely but truth does not have to beg or defend its worthiness. It is what it is and can stand alone over
time. God’s love never fails but we do
when we pursue those things that are far from His righteousness (Matthew
6:33). This leads to our third point.
The
discipline needed in pursuing God is the discipline to “break up your unplowed ground.”
Being a hunter and not a farmer I go back to setting my camp on level
ground. I had to break up all ground
that was not level to the standards I had set for a safe and comfortable
bedding area. The area was safe in the sense of having a foundation level
enough to prevent me from rolling off the mountain, and broken up enough to
allow rest and sleep.
Where is
your life not on solid ground putting you in danger of rolling of the mountain
of faith?
Where have
you allowed small sins into your life to create discomfort and restlessness?
Break up
the ground so you can reap a life of righteousness.
