Spring is out the door and summer is quickly approaching. Many have already prepared their garden beds and planted flowers. Have you ever noticed how the planting season is much like the preparation process in a believer’s life to bear fruit in their walk with the Lord?

When you plant grass seed, it is ideal to plant in loose soil so that the seed can be able to make a nice, deep root so it doesn’t die when it gets hot in the summertime. This means the ground needs tilled up and made ready for the seed. Sometimes it requires the painstaking task of picking up rocks. That’s the hard work no one wants to do. It’s not fun, it’s not fast, and it feels as if the rocks are never-ending.
But it’s such a necessary process to ensure the seed will have a better chance of taking root and coming in good and healthy.

Isn’t this just like our heart when the seed of God’s Word is planted and trying to take root in order to bear fruit?! Our heart needs to be soft and pliable – tilled up like the ground. And the rocks and weeds need to be cleared out of our life. Why? Because the rocks take up necessary space in the soil. And the weeds prevent the seeds from drawing all the nutrients they can out of the ground.
Sinful habits that take up space in our heart make it harder for us to grow in our walk with the Lord and bear fruit in our life. The rocks can be pride, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, anger, lust, or selfishness. What are the rocks in your life that you need to remove so that you can spiritually mature?

James 1:21 says, “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”

When we don’t clear out the weeds and rocks from our heart, we harden our heart. And a hard heart stunts growth. The more we allow the bitterness to fester and the unforgiveness to settle, the roots are growing strong and stubborn. The longer we entertain the flesh, we give room for our pet sins to grow stronger and deeper. Those sins are not being addressed, so they stick around and spread and flourish.

Have you ever noticed how some weeds just never seem to die? Often the only way to be rid of them is to physically pluck them up out of the ground. That’s the same drastic measure we need to take with our habitual sin. When we can’t seem to stop lusting or lying or ______ (fill in the blank), we need to use a more forceful approach.

We are never told in the Bible to compromise with our sin. We are never told to give our sin a pet name. Instead, we are told to cut it off. If your phone is a temptation, get rid of it. Don’t have a smart phone that has internet access. Instead, get a phone that only makes calls and sends texts. If gossiping is a struggle for you, then stop talking to people who make it easier. Stop answering the phone of that person who only speaks bad of other people. Don’t allow yourself to be alone with that person; enlist a buddy (even your spouse) to help hold you accountable.

This process is not you trying to pull yourself up with your own bootstraps. In our own strength, we can never battle sin and be victorious. We need God’s strength, and we need the armor of God. It’s a partnership with the Lord. He gives us His strength and we take responsibility to make right choices. We don’t have to be victims of sin. It’s possible to master it.

In fact, in Genesis 4:7, God tells Cain “…Sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” That’s so powerful! It’s powerful because it means we have power to master sin. That power comes from Christ. When He defeated sin on the cross and He defeated death and the grave with His resurrection, He told us that we as born-again believers, have the same power living in us today.

So don’t think that if you just did more religious things, it would be better. There’s no magic potion or religious recipe to follow. It’s the heart that needs to be humbled, surrendered, and obedient to God and His Word. If God’s Word is bouncing off a hard heart that’s full of sin, it doesn’t matter how much “seed” is on your heart, it’s not going to grow to bring forth fruit in your life. Just like a piece of ground that is full of weeds and rocks. It won’t matter how much grass seed is “planted”, it won’t sprout in abundance or put down deep, strong roots. The seed will die or be eaten by the birds.

Psalm 95:7-8, “Today, if only you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Eventually what happens when we continue to sin is the searing of our hearts. When you sear something, it forms a hardened cap on the surface. That’s like a callous, which prevents you from feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So when you sin, the Holy Spirit tries to convict you, but you are not sensitive to those convictions any longer. You steamroll right over them and suppress those convictions, ultimately grieving the Holy Spirit.

That’s a dangerous place to be, because eventually you will stop “hearing” the conviction of the Holy Spirit. All because you refused to have “ears to hear” and a heart to receive and respond. Don’t let it get to that point. If you know you are sinning and you still receive conviction, then obey immediately and do the right thing. Confess your sin to the Lord, “clean your heart”, get all the junk out and shine the light of Christ and His Word on the darkness that is hidden in your life. Ask Him to help you. Choose to repent, which means to turn in the opposite direction of your sin. Sin takes us away from God, but repentance brings us back to Him.

This is so necessary so that we can flourish in our walk with the Lord and grow more spiritually mature. We will bear fruit as we grow. What kind of fruit does a believer have? Well, the fruit of the Spirit. We grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We will grow in our obedience to God’s Word. We will find that we are doing things for the Lord that we previously did not do. We will see that we are getting better at responding to His promptings and nudges.

And when we are growing and bearing fruit for the Lord, we will find that our testimony is stronger, and our witness is powerful. Then, we are able to go and tell others the Gospel news and help them in their struggles and sins. This is something that is impaired and limited or even prohibited when we are entertaining habitual sins. And the enemy knows this, and that’s why the enemy wants to keep you chained to those pet sins. The enemy doesn’t want you to give them up; therefore, he will continue to tempt you away from the Lord and accountability.

But once you are set free, you should turn around and help your brother and sister in Christ to get free as well. This is what Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:31-32 when He told them that Satan had asked to “sift them all like wheat”, but Jesus had prayed for them (especially Peter), that their faith would stay strong and that once they had come through their sin and returned to the Lord, that they would in turn go to their brothers in Christ and strengthen them.

It should make us so thankful to God for those who plant the seed of God’s Word in our hearts and minds. And thankful for those who come along to water those seeds. You know, just like planting grass, once that seed has been planted, water is essential! If the seed does not receive water, the birds eat it, or the wind blows it away or it lies dormant and eventually dies.  The seed will wait for the water to come, but if no water comes, the ground will harden around the seed and lock it in place where it will eventually die.

Jesus teaches on this very concept in Luke 8 in the Parable of the Sower. In verse 6 he talks about the seed that fell on rocky soil, “and when it came up, it withered away because it had no moisture.” Jesus goes on to explain in verse 13, “And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.”

As believers, we need to be planting seeds, but also watering what has been planted in the hearts and minds of those who hear and receive God’s Word.

What does the water represent?

How do we spiritually “water” the seed of God’s Word?

Jesus commands us in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Why is it important that we do this? Romans 10:14 tells us, “How can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?”

Romans 10:17 tells us, “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

We need to be bearing fruit and maturing in our relationship with the Lord so we live as Paul in Romans 1:16, “…not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,”

Once the seed has been planted and watered, we often cover the ground with straw to protect the seed until it has a chance to take root. This covering makes it harder for the seed to be eaten by birds or blown away by the wind. It won’t matter how much seed you plant if it’s not protected, because none, if any, will stay in place or remain to be watered and take root. When we plant the seeds of God’s Word in others, and water that seed, what is the spiritual “straw” that we need to cover the seed so it can retain the water and grow? Well, it’s prayer for protection as we ask the Lord to bring a harvest of salvation. It’s a covering of the “seeds” with encouragement while we wait for another believer to come along and “water.” We also need to surround the newly sprouted Christian with other seasoned believers and sound biblical teaching, which will help them grow until they are big and strong enough to withstand the dangers of the world and turn around and help someone else to do the same.

It’s important that we not grow weary or give up, while we wait for the seed to take root and bring fruit in a person’s life. Often there’s no immediate growth or fruit, but we need to remind ourselves of Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Stay strong in your faith, be diligent to clean the sin from your heart. If you are not walking with the Lord, how will you lead others to Him? If you have pet sins in your life that you have not dealt with, your witness will not hold up. People will not want to know about your God because you aren’t even following Him. When your walk and talk do not match, others will take notice. Habitual sins are detrimental to your testimony, so don’t make room for them in your life. Purge sin from your heart and serve the Lord with all you have!