Sharon Sloan

Delighted by His Word. Dependent on His Grace.

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Speaking
    • Speaking Topics
    • Testimonials
  • Books
    • Serendipity
  • Joy in the Truth
  • Contact

Unearthing The Fallow Ground of My Heart

January 3, 2009 | 3 Comments

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy;
break up your fallow ground:
for it is time to seek the LORD,
till He come and rain righteousness upon you.”
Hosea 10:12 (KJV)
“Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until He comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12 (NIV)
Today was a “pajama day”. I love pajama days. I contently spent the day putting our house back in order after the Christmas season and yesterday’s “New Year’s Day Buffet”, entertaining a house full of loved ones. Nowhere to go today and nowhere to be. Just a cozy day at home…in my pajamas!
As I took in the tasks ahead of me this morning, I paused to take some “before pictures”.
I put laundry on hold for a few days.
The dirty laundry seems to have reproduced on its own! Our basement play room, for which we are so thankful, left little carpet to be found. The kids did help, but this was a task I really wanted to do on my own (i.e. time to really clean out!).

Unearthing our laundry room and our basement play room took me most of the day. As I was working on making dirty laundry clean again, picking up messes and putting things in their proper places (sometimes that being the trash can!), it reminded me of the worship song “Break up my fallow ground”. I began to sing the song over and over, and I made that scripture my prayer throughout the day.

“Lord, break up the fallow ground of my heart. Unearth in me the things you still want to refine and make new. Make me willing to let go those things that I stubbornly hold on to that do not honor You. Take the remnants of my old self and make them new. Do a fresh work in my heart. Awaken Your love more deeply in me. Show me again Your sweet personal love for me. Bear fruit in me for my husband and my children. Fill me so I am a vessel for Your honor and purposes to reach out to those you put in my path. I graciously want to receive from You through those precious vessels in my life with whom You have blessed me. Break up the fallow, unplowed ground in my heart. Let me sow Your righteousness and reap Your mercy. Let me continually seek You until You come and rain Your righteousness on me.”

As I worked for hours on unearthing our floors and breaking up the recently unplowed rooms of our home, I began to rejoice as things were looking pretty spiffy. I also realized that as I pray this prayer to the Lord, I need to take steps of faith and trust in Him and constantly work hard to allow Him to complete His work in Me. Asking to be refined makes me gasp at times. I know it will be bittersweet. Bitter as the fallow ground is broken up and plowed by His tender hands. Sweet as He so graciously and mercifully refines me because of His faithfulness and for His glory.

So, here are the “after pictures” of our laundry room and the basement play room. As you can see, the kids were jaw-dropped amazed with the transformation! May they also witness and be in jaw-dropping amazement of God’s continual, much-needed transforming work in Mommy this year, too! Only by His grace and strength.


It is indeed time to seek the Lord.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Matthew 5:8

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket

Filed Under: Joy in the Truth

Comments

  1. Joyful says

    January 3, 2009 at 1:21 am

    WOW – what transformation in home and heart! I too have been working on de-cluttering the past two days, but I must confess to not having the pliable attitude you had before the Lord. In all honesty, I was getting resentful as I worked along. Although I was happy with what was being accomplished (there’s still so much more to do!), I was throwing a little pitty party for myself as the rest of my family have been out skiing both days as I’ve done laundry, tidied, purged the old to find room for the new. My heart has needed a purging too. Thanks for inviting me to plow up the fallow ground of my heart for the planting of the Lord.

    Blessings,
    Joy

    Reply
  2. Runner Mom says

    January 3, 2009 at 2:08 am

    If I promise to make you a big ‘ol PBJ and a large Coke, will you come down here and help me do mine???? Seriously????

    After a trail run tomorrow, that’s the plan to put our pretties away. I love the decoarting part–just not the putting away part. I can relate to Joy’s pity party! I will just clip on my handy dandy new Ipod shuffle and clean away and praise God that I have stuff to put away and a home in which to live.

    Love you!
    Susan

    Reply
  3. Wendy Blight says

    January 3, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    Sharon,

    Thank you, thank you for being so real and showing the before and after. I LOVE IT!!! I need to see that for sometimes I feel everyone is so much more organized and it overwhelms me. I love seeing that there are other moms out there just like me!!

    More than that, I am so drawn to your heart and your love for God’s Word as you pour it out throughout your blog. It is such an encouragement to me!!

    Love you,

    Wendy

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Sharon

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Get Connected

Subscribe to my blog updates.

Order Sharon's
book Serendipity.
Available from Amazon.

Instagram

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: No posts found.

Recent Posts

  • Hello world!
  • He Bought Her Pearls
  • A Purpose And A Promise

Latest Facebook Feed

Latest Facebook Feed

Latest Tweets

Sharon Sloan on Twitter

Copyright © 2023 Sharon Sloan | Design by The Design Diva | Development by MRM | Photographs by Toni Valentini Photography

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.