A Field of Purpose

“He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, / But he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding [Literally ‘heart’].”
- Proverbs 12:11

In his famous motivational speech "Acres Of Diamonds”, Russell H. Conwell (1843-1925) details the parable of a Persian farmer named Ali Hafed. He is a content man until one day he is visited by a Buddhist priest who tells him all about diamonds. Ali becomes obsessed with finding diamonds himself. He sells all he has, moves his family into rental houses and goes off looking for diamonds.

Ali crosses much of the world in his quest. Runs out of money. His family is dispossessed and he eventually commits suicide on a beach in Barcelona. Meanwhile, the man who bought Ali’s farm notices one day watering the camels a shiny rock in the stream—a diamond. Thus is discovered the Golconda diamond mine, one of the largest diamond mines in the world, sitting under the farm Ali Hafed once owned.

The point of Conwell’s parable (i.e. not historical) is all of us have acres of diamonds to mine right where we are if we just take the time to look for them. And I couldn’t agree more!

Proverbs 12:11 tells us, “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, / But he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding.” The word understanding literally means “heart”. And that is the problem. Many of us find that our heart is not where we are, it is obsessed with what we don’t have.

Like Ali, we sell all we have, disconnect from those we love and wander the landscape trying to find our acres of diamonds. And like Ali, we usually find ourselves destitute and without hope. Have you ever noticed how many times the Bible tells us to remain, stand still, be at peace, stand firm, be still, etc. Most of the time we only hear people preach and tell us to “go”. And there are times to go, but the disciples were not given that command until after they were told to remain where they were.

Acts 1:4, “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father… [i.e. Holy Spirit].”

I find we are so ineffectual as the body of Christ simply because we are so focused on going and doing, that we take off and try to do it under our own power. We are too impatient to wait on the Holy Spirit to move in our lives.

Many have neglected tilling our own land. Devoting ourselves to learning and growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ until He moves and calls us to follow. Do you realize Paul was a Christian for 14 years before he truly began his ministry? (Galatians 2:1) He spent 3 years alone in Arabia being taught by Christ and growing in grace and knowledge. He was tilling the field where the Lord had put him and found satisfaction in the Bread of Life. He also found his purpose.

We all have a field at our current place in life. The question is what are we to do in that field. I don’t care if it is in corporate America, small-town USA, or a mission field in Africa. We are called to till the field. What that primarily means is: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

Those are the acres of diamonds we should all be looking for everyday. They are right where you are today. They are ready to be mined and brought to the surface if we will just seek Him with all our heart. And when we do so, we will also discover our field is a field of purpose.

That purpose might be to go forth. It also might be to stand firm, remain and minister where you are, but the purpose will never come before we take the time to till the field. Without that we have no heart for God’s plan.

My challenge this week is to till the field God has placed me in until I find satisfaction in the Bread of Life. That is the first step into developing a field of purpose.

© 2026 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.