Can we see growth in our lives?

Yes of course there is likely progress happening; a career unfolding or family beginning. But are we experiencing deep personal growth of heart?

Cultivation is a critical part to the health and growth of crops. The task includes loosening and breaking up the soil around a newly planted crop, aerating the ground to increase water infiltration and destroying weeds to promote growth.

The image of our heart being like a rooted seed, should lead us to the realization that we also need this cultivation in our lives. For without this daily heart work, we will never fully receive that which is available to each of us or the greater family tree to which we belong.

Proverbs 28:19 affirms ‘He who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty‘

How many of us are following empty pursuits, wondering why we aren’t growing; instead feeling empty and hungry?

Surely, we all desire enriched lives of plenty… a bountiful harvest 

So then, we must begin our Cultivation 

First, pulling the weeds that are choking out our roots. There is a sort of purging taking place in this work, as we clear the unhealthy or dangerous parts of our life to literally save our heart from slowly dying. It is highly likely we know exactly what or who these weeds are.

Next there is a softening, or aeration technique applied in our core. Meaning, wherever possible openings are created in our lives to allow the true Water of Life to fully saturate us. 

Picture the dry and dark places in our hearts that could greatly benefit from an opening; allowing pure light and water in

To cultivate however, also means to train or refine something; to make better. So while we must undergo the steps outlined above, and surely continue to apply them on a regular basis; developing our heart with a genuine desire to ‘make better’ is going to be the difference in sustaining our strength and long-term growth. 

Interestingly, as we experience growth, we begin to realize it was never really us doing anything. We were merely a seed that was planted by Him, our Gardener, who is daily cultivating our…

Core Roots