A Gardener's Look

In Phillip Kelley’s book, A Gardener looks at the Fruit of the Sprit, he speaks of those who wear a path, a destructive path perhaps through our lives, wearing the once tender soil down to a hardness, as hard as cement. We are going to look at 7 ways, over 7 days, that the path of our life is worn down.

He says, “All can harden our hearts in such a way that there is little or no response to the Word of God which may have been planted there. The first includes:
Our friends and associates.                
It may well be asked, “Who are the people who must frequently pound a path through your life?
“What sort of impact do they make upon my mind?”
“Are they hardening me against God?” “Do they compact and compress my convictions against Christ?”
“Are they slowly solidifying my sentiments against the Gracious Spirit of God?”
These are perfectly proper and appropriate questions which we need to face. Often, quite unknown to ourselves, our souls are being set against the very One who tends us with such loving  attention.

The trail that has been trodden across my spirit and soul is solidified by the world’s  ideologies and thoughts. I become conditioned by the culture of my society. Those who do not know Christ can so condition their outlook and set their minds against the Savior, that there is stern resistance to God’s Word when presented to them. There is no warm response of obedience to the overtures of the gracious Spirit. So the ground of their lives lies bare and unproductive. The good seed of God’s  Word cannot germinate in such a situation. Whatever is said is snatched away by the enemy of men’s souls. There is no fruit. “…it’s for the birds.”

Don’t let the ground of your life be trodden down by those who would cause you to become hard to Christ. Ask yourself the above questions today and ask the Lord to help you get the weeds (people and things) out, and make your soul good ground.

Blessings