This one is going to be a bit different.
I spent a decent amount of time pondering within myself and asking God what it takes to have a heart full of good soil and thus end up being fruitful for Him. I must admit that I don't know much about being fruitful because of all the time in my life that I've spent full of rocks and weeds. I'm just now getting to some of those particularly nasty weeds and tearing down the strongholds in my mind where they live. I'm also getting to the point where I realize that I can learn as a I go from my loving Father. So as I asked Him about this he directed me to Psalm One.
Psalm One holds special significance to me. One of the greatest privileges of being a part of the church that I attended as a teen was being exposed to Brother Bill Bradbury. Old triple B always sat in the front row. He had eyes that let everyone know that he would talk to anyone that was willing to listen. He even sat on the edge of the stage after service and waited just so he could be available if any of the teens wanted to chat or pick his brain about God and scripture. Psalm One was his favorite. He started reading it everyday at the start of the day years ago. He called it his breakfast. He started making tally marks inside the cover of his bible every time he would read it. They spilled to the back cover after the front filled up and elsewhere. He claimed that there was enough life in that chapter to keep you going for a lifetime.
So I did what any seeking teen would do upon hearing this, I read Psalm One. Amazingly, I didn't feel any different. I don't know what I expected, growing wings maybe. Anyway, over time I dug in a little more and actually started to study it and search through the theme of those six verses. I believe what God showed me then about that chapter is the answer to how we cultivate good soil in our hearts and keep out the rocks and weeds.
Here goes:
1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
That's right! It ends with an exclamation point. This verse points out three things that a righteous man does not do. He does not believe like, behave like, or belong to the realm of the ungodly.
2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
Truth becomes the focus. God's presence and His word become our lifeline and constant desire. I believe this happens little by little as we choose to believe God's word as truth, especially in the face of feelings and instincts that oppose that truth. Will we stand on the truth of God's word or just give it lip service?
3. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers.
Being planted next to the stream represents placing the Holy Spirit in His rightful place and thus walking in the Spirit. The fruit, the strength of life, and the victory come from the ability to continually draw from that source of life. Remember verse three is contingent upon verses one and two. The holiness, being set apart from the common ways, of verse one is what precedes the receptiveness to His Word of verse two! If we desire to be the good soil which is able to receive His words and bear fruit because of them we must make sure that we are not thinking like the world (believing lies), doing what the world does (actively walking in sinful lifestyles), or belong to their circles (being rooted next to those full of weeds will definitely lead to contamination of the soil of our hearts). Please note the use of the word rooted!
In short, God demands holiness and promises life! I love it!
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