We are at the time of year when our Minnesota landscape begins to change.  Plants lose their color, grass ceases to grow, and in keeping with the name of the season–fall, leaves float to the ground from their location on tree branches.  In many senses, our countryside is beginning to look barren.  Soon the snow will cover the territory as the cold winds of winter blow, and many Minnesotans will stay indoors for the winter months.  In recognition of the barrenness of the landscape around us, we need to guard our hearts against our own form of spiritual barrenness.  Spiritual barrenness happens when our hearts are infertile or unfruitful locations for the Word of God to take root!

The difficult reality of spiritual barrenness is that it is so hard to detect, even in our own hearts.  Many times in our spiritual lives we think of spirituality in terms of environment and location–if we are in a spiritual environment or location, we must be spiritual people and not barren.  But just because we are in proximity to spiritual things does not necessarily indicate spiritual growth.  In fact, the possibility exists for us to be in close proximity to spiritual things and yet remain very spiritually barren.  The obvious example of this is the Pharisees, who lived in close proximity to spiritual things yet rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  Scripture also describes the spiritual barrenness of God’s people Israel in Ezekiel 33:30-33.  In this somber text of Scripture, God describes His people as those who gather to hear the Word of God and put themselves in a spiritual environment.  They even hear the Words of God and find them pleasurable to their ears, yet they do not do them.  This text teaches us the important truth that a spiritual lifestyle does not always make one spiritually healthy!

When it comes to spiritual barrenness, oftentimes we attempt to hide our inside with our outside.  We may attempt to look good on the outside and deceive everyone around us into thinking things are going well in our spiritual lives.  But we need to remember that God sees what is on the inside–we cannot hide spiritual barrenness from God!  Have you been allowing your proximity to spiritual things to hide what is truly going on inside?  This was how God’s people Israel responded to God and His Word.  Take a lesson from God’s people!  Do not make the mistake of thinking that proximity to spiritual things makes you spiritual.  Only through honesty about our condition and obedience to God’s Word can we overcome the spiritual barrenness that would overtake our hearts.  Let us make sure we allow the Word of God to transform our hearts so that we can be a location where the Word of God may flourish inside of us!