Besides the word picture of “broken cisterns,” Jeremiah also has a vivid image of what repentance might look like, if it were a physical thing: ”Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.” Jeremiah 4:3
Just as we can’t imagine a farmer sowing seeds without breaking up the ground, we shouldn’t imagine God doing anything in our lives without receptivity on our part. In Jesus, He sows the seed, but, as in the parable, seeds can fall upon stony, thorny, inhospitable ground, where it is destined for crop failure. Matthew 13:18-22
This preparing of the ground is how the Bible pictures a changed mind and a receptive heart, true repentance which brings which brings life change. John the Baptist spoke of works as the fruit of repentance, not its root. Matthew 3:8
Repentance is not working, or making yourself worthy, or cleaning up your life. It is acknowledging that our hearts are hardened against God, and making the needed adjustments to say “Yes” to Him.
It is not fighting, but a surrender.
It is not our initiative, but our response.
It is not working for peace, but laying down our weapons.
It is not earning anything, but humbly receiving everything.
It is not becoming worthy, but acknowledging our unworthiness.
It is not the destruction of our personality, just our pride.
Of course, we could not do these things without God’s help, and even faith itself in His gift (Ephesians 2:8). Still, we are called upon to do the impossible, which, as we awaken to God’s grace, we realize is a result of His work within us, turning our hearts toward Him, and opening our eyes to the beauty that is in Jesus.
As Jonah discovered in his first semester at Whale U, “Salvation is of the Lord!” Jonah 2:9
Have you broken up the sod in every area of your own heart?
Are you open to His Word?
Are you, today, saying “Yes!” to Jesus?
“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Matthew 13:23