I have many friends who, every New Year, will spend time with God asking Him for a word for the coming year. Even though I see how helpful it can be, it is not something that I have ever really done, until this year.
I was driving to work at the end of December when I had a sudden thought to ask God if He had a word for me for 2026. In my humanness, I thought, He probably won’t give me one, but of course, I was proved wrong.
Instead of one word, I felt Him speak three: “Till the field.” What on earth did that mean? At the time, I couldn’t spend any time focusing or meditating on it, but in the following days and weeks, I have been able to delve deeper into its meaning.
To ‘till a field’ in a physical sense is to take a plough and dig up the ground, ploughing under any grass or weeds to prepare the soil for planting. Once planted, the sun shines, the rain waters, and the crops will grow and be harvested. Then the process begins again.
I felt God was challenging me about my relationship with Him. Am I leaning too heavily on my previous knowledge and experience of Him, or am I ready to dig up the soil of my spiritual life and begin afresh with new seeds, awaiting the growth of a new harvest that will come?
Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you” (NIV).
I had never focused on this verse until God gave me the words ‘till the field’, and now it is at the forefront of my mind, reminding me that I need to be the one tilling the field of my soul by being more intentional in my walk with Him. Daily, I am being challenged to explore the areas I need to focus on and to fully prepare myself for the blessings He will pour out in ways that I am not going to believe!
God loves to pour into us in unexpected ways, drawing us closer to Him through it all. May we each receive this encouragement from Hosea to till the unploughed ground, knowing it will lead to God pouring out His righteousness on our lives.
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