The Unmockable Guarantee

“He who sows in the field of his lower nature, will from that nature reap destruction; but he who sows to serve the Spirit will from the Spirit reap the Life of the Ages” (Gal. 6:8, Weymouth).

Every day of our lives is full of decisions. Starting the moment we wake up, we are deciding what to do with each minute God gives us. These decisions are seeds that He entrusts into our hands. Each one is an opportunity to sow towards a future harvest. As our verse for today teaches us, we have two choices for each seed. We can sow into our lower, sinful nature… Or, we can sow into the Spirit. Depending on our choice, today’s decisions are going to become either a crop of vitality or a harvest of harm.

Harvests don’t generally pop up the instant you put seed into the ground. Instead, they are off in the distance on the timeline of our lives. For this reason, we often make the mistake of believing that our choices have no serious consequences. “Hm, look at that. I just did something supposedly really bad, and nothing at all harmful came of it.” This shortsightedness is exactly what Holy Spirit is warning us about in the previous verse: “Do not deceive yourselves. God is not to be scoffed at. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (v. 7).

The flipside of this coin is that we often also forget that even the tiniest choice to sow into the Spirit must also have a harvest. For example, take the fruit of joy. Holy Spirit has been talking extensively about this subject, so I’ll use it for this illustration.

Maybe today has been an unpleasant day so far. Maybe everything that could go wrong… has been. Maybe you are aware of the Scriptural instruction to “rejoice in the Lord always.” Maybe you really don’t feel like rejoicing because it’s just one of those days. And yet, your spirit wants to obey your Lord. So you, on purpose, choose to rejoice in His goodness. You choose to thank Him for His undying faithfulness to you. You choose to praise Him for who He is.

You just sowed a seed. A really, really good seed. It sinks down into hidden places (who, after all, can see what’s happening with a freshly planted seed? It’s under the ground. Only God can see it). It probably feels like nothing important came of that choice, beyond helping you get through the day. But that is a misleading perception. Incredibly important things are happening in places your gaze can’t penetrate.

If you keep sowing seeds like that, you are going to reap a harvest of eternal worth. You will be amazed at the crop of joy-fruit that is going to come up, budding and blossoming in your life. “And don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!” (v. 9, TPT). Jesus’ own joy is going to become a fundamental part of who you are.

Dear one, it’s worth it. Sow a seed today called “the sacrifice of praise.” Don’t give up. Keep on sowing. Wait for it… Wait for it… It’s coming. You will reap a harvest called “joy unspeakable and full of glory!”

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Do you remember a time in your life when you sowed a good seed, forgot about it, and later were surprised by the harvest that came up?