You Don't Know What's in the Soil

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

Once I heard a minister (Steven Furtick) preach about Jesus’ disciples being given a job that was beyond their ability to perform. The idea sparked a mental scenario of an upstart employee compared to a seasoned one. The upstart I imagined as a green seedling with a thin, leafy stem standing upright in a flowerpot except for its tender, bowed tip. The thought popped into mind, “You don’t know what’s in the soil.”

Soil. The driver for the future of that young plant could be hidden in its soil. Our naked eye cannot discern all the properties of soil. We cannot observe its pH or nutrient profile or know if it will support the growth of a plant and cause it to bloom and bear fruit.

Its hidden properties are known to God as are the contents of the heart. Scripture tells us God looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 KJV says, “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11 says the Lord’s thoughts toward us are to give us “a future and a hope.” The KJV describes it as “an expected end.” The Lord has plans for us. He knows the crop He wants to grow. He also knows what sort of soil He’s working with. He knows what we’re capable of. He knows if the soil of our hearts needs amended or fertilized to better support us becoming the person He sees us as, able to do the good works He ordained, or planned, for us to do.

We may find it challenging to envision ourselves or others filling roles that seem too big for the us we know. But God sees the soil of our hearts. And if God assigns something and says we can do it, we can do it.