How to Make Yourself Good Soil

My Heart Is On Fire by Doug Apple - a short Christian devotional to open the Scriptures and make your heart burn within you!

I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)

Three losers and one winner, and I want to be the winner!

But how?

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said four people heard the Word, but only one of them “got it.”

I want to be one who gets it!

He described the first three as being soil where the seed of the Word couldn’t really take root. There were different excuses and reasons, but the end result was the same: no fruit. No growth. No blessing.

Then in Mark 4:8 Jesus said, “But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

Then He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Man, I want to be one who hears, don’t you?

But how?

I want to be that good soil, the best soil I can be, but how?

So instead of wondering or thinking about it, I decided to pray about it.

I just said, “Father, how can I make myself good soil?”

And immediately an answer came to me: “humility.”

Humility will make you good soil.

In Luke 18 Jesus talked about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One was proud. Yes, he thanked God, but listen to how he did it. He said, “God, I’m so thankful that I’m not like other people” ha ha ha.

With soil like that, it’s no wonder the seed just bounces off of it like glass.

But the second man stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even look up when he prayed. And he cried, “Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Now THAT is good soil. God can bear good fruit in soil like that.

Humility is the key to making yourself good soil, and the only way to bear good fruit is to make yourself good soil.

In Matthew 19 we read of the rich young ruler, and wow, who wouldn’t want to be those three things, rich, young, and in charge! It’s like the old country song, “Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.”

But…he was not good soil. The very literal Jesus, standing right there, planted the good seed of the Word directly into the rich young ruler and what happened? Tink, tink, tink. Like a seed bouncing across glass, the Word of the Lord was of no effect, because why? Because he was lacking humility. He was lacking need and want and hunger and desire.

So when Jesus speaks to me, through the Bible, through the Holy Spirit, through other parts in the body of Christ, will I be ready? Will I be good soil?

Yes, I will, I must, there’s no other way that works.

So I humble myself before God. I say, “Lord, You are the only way. You only know how this thing is gonna work. You only know what I really need to be doing, what to think, what to say, how to behave. Lord, I bow to You. I submit to You. I surrender to You. You are the Potter, I am the clay. You are the Shepherd, I am the sheep. You are the King! And I am your humble servant, just wanting to do what is my duty to do. God I need You in every way.”

Humility. It’s the key to making yourself good soil, and becoming good soil is the only way to bear an abundance of good fruit for this life, and for the next.

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.