20 Feb ’10 Arrow Service: God Sees Your Heart

Text by Heidi Low

“If you can be distracted, you can be detracted,” was the bold claim from Pastor Keith. Stressing pointedly on “DE-TRAC-TED”, he went on to explain that the course of our lives is determined by the dominant thoughts in our minds. How apt it is for this age and time!

Living in a multimedia age where the world is constantly vying for our attention, it is easy to lose sight of the things of God.

Many young men have been sidetracked by websites filled with unsavoury images that they had supposedly “chanced upon” while attending to an online activity that started out innocently. Girls are not spared such poison either. Just how many young girls out there are unable to make a distinction between love and lust?

The devil knows that if he can clog our minds with unclean thoughts such as those above – thoughts that bring condemnation – he can influence the heart, and it is our heart that directs our paths. But God loves us too much to leave us wallowing in condemnation.

He wants to sow seeds, seeds of His thoughts, seeds from the Word of God, seeds that bear good fruit in our lives. But how can we be sure that our heart is good ground for the seed to be sown in?

Pastor Keith then introduced the 4 types of grounds in Matthew 13:

1)      ‘The wayside’, which refers to our lack of understanding;

2)      ‘On stony places’, that speaks of our stumbling when faced with persecution;

3)      ‘Among thorns’, which signifies the cares of the world;

4)      ‘Good ground’, which refers to the condition of our hearts to receive His word.

If, at this point, you feel that being the ‘good ground’ is nearly impossible to achieve, do not despair. God has appointed Another to be responsible for it.

For in 1 Corinthians 1:30, it is written:

But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption –

It took our breath away when Pastor Keith revealed how God has weaved these two portions of the Bible together. Wisdom for our lack of understanding (‘the wayside’), righteousness for our stumbling (‘on stony places’), and sanctification for our preoccupation with the world (‘among thorns’) – all these we have access to in our redemption, through the blood of Jesus, who has purchased for us the good ground that is to be the state of our hearts.

Beloved, all you have to do is to claim the good ground that God has purchased and prepared for you. Begin to sow seeds full of His thoughts from His Word. And when you do so, restful increase will start to manifest in every area of your life!

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