SOWING & REAPING
03rd Jun 2015
In the UK it is springtime, the days are getting longer, the temperature is slowly rising, the trees are bursting into leaf, and we have just been watching the Chelsea Flower Show on television! I have been planting out my raised beds and the tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse.
However, it seems to me every year that the process of growing things is so slow. As I go out into the garden every day the new plants don’t look much different than the day before.
Sowing and reaping is a spiritual principle, the seed is sown, it is watered and eventually there will be a harvest. Galatians 6:7-10 says, “A man reaps what he sows.... the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
We sow seeds into people’s lives; we spend years sowing into the lives of our children; in our church and ministry we have spent years sowing into the lives of a lot of people. Sometimes waiting for the growth and the harvest is very hard, it seems to take such a long time.
Paul says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) The key phrase of that verse is “God made it grow.” We can feel that we have done everything we could possibly do to produce good fruit in the lives of those we love and care for, and yet we do not see the results.
Don’t give up on all the seeds you have planted into the lives of others, keep planting and keep watering, that is your only responsibility. It is God who will continue to work in the lives of those for whom you pray.
Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
by Charles Sibthorpe
