Tilling the Soil of the Heart

First15 Devotional

First15

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’ll look at a vital spiritual practice to all those seeking to grow in God: tilling the soil of the heart. Jesus spoke in Matthew 13 of two different types of soil—hard and soft. God longs for us to till the soil of our hearts that we might be receptive to the seed of his word and bear fruit. May your heart become more responsive to the presence, will, and love of God this week as you cultivate good soil with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Our Scripture for today comes from Matthew 13:23, and today's worship is Refiner by Maverick City Music.

Thanks for listening to the First15 Podcast. My name is Ryn, and I’m a part of the First15 Team. If you haven’t heard, we just launched a brand new First15 app, available now in your app store! One of the new features that you can enjoy when you download the app is our Guided Prayers. We’ve created unique guided prayers that are created specifically to help you connect with God in prayer wherever you are.

Today, we’re sharing a preview of a Guided Prayer I wrote titled, “Of Repentance.” What a gift it is that our God calls Himself our Father and invites us to bring all the wrongs that we’ve done and lay them down so that they no longer hinder us from the life He calls us to live. Taking inventory of our hearts in God’s presence is one way to experience deeper intimacy and freedom with Him. I pray this guided prayer helps you to do that today, friend. And I pray it serves as a template for your own prayers of repentance so that you can walk in the fullness of the life God has for you to live, free of the weights and chains that keep us bound.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week will look at a vital spiritual practice to all those seeking to grow in God,
0:09.9	tilling the soil of the heart.
0:12.7	Jesus spoke in Matthew 13 of two different types of soil, hard and soft.
0:18.4	And God longs for us to till the soil of our hearts that we might be receptive
0:23.2	to the seed of His word and bear fruit. May your heart become more responsive to the presence,
0:30.6	will, and love of God this week as you cultivate good soil with the help of the Holy Spirit.
0:37.9	Welcome to the first of teen podcast.
0:53.7	Our scripture for today comes from Matthew 22 through 23.
0:59.4	God's word says, as for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the
1:05.6	word, but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
1:14.9	As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands
1:19.2	it.
1:20.2	He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, and another 60, and in another 30.
1:31.3	The concept of good and bad soil is something Jesus' listeners would have understood well.
1:37.3	Planting in good or bad soil meant having food or going hungry.
1:43.3	It meant having money or not. For their agrarian culture,
1:47.9	it was a matter of survival. And while Jesus' parable might not have as direct a correlation to us,
1:56.3	its principle remains just as relevant. We all have spiritual soil. Through our mindsets and
2:04.3	postures of the heart, we can receive the seed of God's word, which will in turn yield
2:09.4	life-giving fruit. Or we can allow the soil of our hearts to make us unreceptive to the
2:16.7	powerful work of God in our lives.
2:20.9	It's incredibly important for us to understand that God never forces his desires on us.
	...

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