For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Break up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns."
Jeremiah 4:3
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
Hosea 10:12
These verses remind my of a time in my life when my heart was hard and needing to be "broken up". I was living in Chicago out on a run praying for God to help me. At the time, I was raising support to be a missionary so I didn't have the money for a counselor. I realized that according to scripture, the Holy Spirit was the true and best Counselor.
I started to tell the Holy Spirit my struggle, like I would a counselor. In the midst of this I felt the Holy Spirit reminding me that the root of my problem was the need to forgive.
As I continued to pray and reflect, I started to become frustrated with God after I remembered that He was the one who had taken me through this hard time. Why didn't He stop it? This time in my life was influential in exposing a part of me that God wanted to purify. My pride had been getting the best of me and the Counselor wanted to help me be free from it.
I got three main takeaways from this experience with the Holy Spirit:
1. I acknowledged that God was there, even in the midst of my hard time. He was sovereign over that situation and He did not leave me or forsake me.
2. God loved me through it, even though He allowed it to happen.
3. He was willing to walk with me through that problem and comfort me as my perfect Counselor.
After I realized these three things, and I forgave those who I needed to, the peace and joy and freedom returned to my heart.
Break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord