The Harvest

He who sows, even with tears, the precious seed of faith, hope, and love, shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him, because it is the very nature of that seed to yield a joyful harvest.  Richard Cecil

I was at an event with my parents yesterday and one of the things we do when we speak at events is we talk about planting, growing and harvesting lavender.   It reminded me how patient we have to be to grow something.  You don’t walk out to your garden and stick the plant in the ground and wait a few minutes and it blooms or produces fruit.  It is a process that often takes years. 

On the other hand, have you noticed how weeds seem to spring up overnight?  We would all be millionaires if there was value in weeds.  Our Christian life is the same.  We are placed on earth to produce an abundance of fruit.   Sin in our life can be likened to weeds.  It can overtake every good thing in our life and choke it out and when it does we don’t produce fruit. 

Another thing that happens is we are impatient.  We want instant success in our gardening endeavors. If we are going to bear good fruit, we will need to be patient.  We can’t walk up to someone who doesn’t know anything about God and expect them to understand Him.  That would be like someone asking me to repair their car.  I don’t know the first thing about engines, brakes, radiators or any number of other things under the hood.  God's Word is very much like that.  When you first open your Bible a lot of what is under the hood is not going to make sense.  There are still times when things in it don’t make sense to me and I’ve been reading it for years.

We have a choice.  We can have a fruitful harvest or we can harvest weeds.  How we live our life can produce an abundance of fruit, but it will be in God’s time not ours.  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to have an abundant harvest but many times I am impatient and don’t take the time to nourish the soil.  Help me to be patient and to plant seeds of goodness and love.  Remind me that what I plant will come back tenfold.  I can harvest fruit or weeds.  Thank you for giving me a desire to harvest fruit. 

      

Scripture: The sower sows the word.  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”  Mark 4:14-20

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Matthew 9:37-38