God is always at work in our hearts.
He never slumbers or sleeps and He is constantly engaged in the work of making us more like Jesus.
But God never wastes His efforts.
There’s a purpose behind everything He does and allows.
Even when it brings us to tears.
The tears might come first, but the joy of fruitfulness will soon make us forget the tears.

Let Him plow, He purposes a crop.
Samuel Rutherford

We need the correction that brings us to tears.
The work of God that plows up our fallow ground and uproots the weeds that must be destroyed before a good crop can grow.
You and I want what God wants, but we honestly don’t like His process very much.

There’s an interesting passage in Isaiah 28 that should give us hope and remind us that the uprooting and plowing don’t go on a minute longer than necessary.

Listen to me, listen as I plead:
Does a farmer always plow and never sow?
Is he forever harrowing the soil and never planting it?
Does he not finally plant his many kinds of grain, each in its own section of his land?
He knows just what to do, for God has made him see and understand.
He doesn’t thresh all grains the same. A sledge is never used on dill, but it is beaten with a stick.
A threshing wheel is never rolled on cummin, but it is beaten softly with a flail.
Bread grain is easily crushed, so he doesn’t keep on pounding it.
The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher and gives the farmer wisdom.
Isaiah 28:24-29The Living Bible

God uses the minimum amount of force with us.
We can trust His wisdom in knowing just what it takes to help us grow spiritually.
When He disciplines us it is always for our good and it will produce righteousness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:11

He intends to fill your barn with those peaceable fruits of righteousness.

I will restore to you the years
that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
my great army, which I sent among you.
“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
and praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
Joel 2:25-27

Memories of the tears and shame are replaced with abundance and satisfaction.

Shame is gone.
The barn is full.
And we’re satisfied.
When the tears come remember the plowing is for a moment and He purposes a crop!