Fallow Ground

Jeremiah 4:3

For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

The word fallow means inactive, resting, or stagnant. When God tells Israel to Break up your fallow ground, He is telling them to break up their inactivity or stagnant life. God is against inactivity, and He will step in to change the status quo of inactivity so that your life will become an active life.

Why is God so much against inactivity? God is against inactivity because it always leads to sin. Notice that after He said to break up the fallow ground that He also said, and sow not among thorns. Thorns are a type of sin. Thorns did not exist until Adam and Eve sinned. However, God made the ground to bring forth thorns because of their sin. You will recall how Christ’s enemies put a crown of thorns on His brow at His crucifixion because they did not like that He said that He was the sinless Son of God. The crown of thorns was their way of saying that Jesus was a sinner, which we know is not true. Let me give three principles about the importance of breaking up your fallow ground and how to do it.

First, sin is always a result of spiritual inactivity. You need not to look far in the Scriptures to see the plethora of believers who sinned when they became spiritually inactive. David committed adultery when he stayed home from the battle. Israel set up a golden calf and danced around it naked to the world’s music when they were playing instead of being spiritually active. Peter denied the church, his faith, and his God when he became spiritually inactive and instead warmed at the heathen’s fire. We could talk about Noah who became inactive and went to a drunken life. We could talk about Hezekiah who became spiritually inactive at the end of his life and ended his life in sin. We could talk about Samson who, early in his life, became spiritually inactive, and it led to a life of sin and heartache. There are many illustrations in the Scriptures that show spiritual inactivity always leads to sin.

Second, getting yourself in a spiritually active church will help to break up your fallow ground. The biggest reason every church needs to be spiritually active in sowing through soul winning and ministry is so that it gives believers a chance to stop being spiritually inactive, which will lead to sin. Every believer needs a spiritually active church. If you are in a church that is spiritually inactive, you need to get out of that church and move to a place where there is a church that is spiritually active. For the sake of your spiritual health, you need a spiritually active church.

Third, you break up your fallow ground by doing an act of faith. We can almost get used to doing good so much that we become complacent with what we have. Complacency in what you spiritually have leads to a heart that has fallow ground, which always leads to sin. Doing something big by faith breaks up the status quo in your life, which forces you to pray more, work more, and use every bit of energy to make it. The more you do by faith, the more active you become, which results in a fertile heart for God’s Word to continue to feed you, and for God to continue to work in your life.

Have you become inactive and stagnant in your Christian walk? Let God’s command to break up your fallow ground be a warning that sin is around the corner if you don't change something, and a challenge to get active so that sin will have no place in your life.