Jeremiah 1-6 (The Daily Walk Bible).

Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt disconnected from God? Perhaps you stopped attending church, let your prayer life slide, or didn’t engage in regular devotions. Or maybe you were engaging in ongoing sin. You asked, “Where is the Lord?” and drew further and further away from him by your sin and your actions.

God’s reminder to us today is that we are to “plow up the hard ground of our hearts!” That is certainly excellent advice for when we feel far from God, but it’s also good advice for when we are close to him. We need to make sure that we are ready, willing, and able to hear from God. We do that by submitting ourselves to the authority of His Word and living for Him!

Jesus told the parable of the soils (or parable of the sower, as it is more commonly called) to His disciples (Matthew 13). It echoes God’s message to Judah through Jeremiah. A sower went out sowing seed. The seed was the Word of God. The soil was people’s hearts. Their hearts had to be soft and ready for the Word of God to take effect in their lives. While the parable certainly applies to salvation, it also speaks to us as believers today. When we go to God, when we seek Him through His Word, we need to make sure that we are willing to listen and obey. We need to “plow up the hard ground of our hearts!”