Galatians 6:7-8(NLT)
“7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”
My grandfather was a chicken farmer in rural Georgia. He’d get up as early as 3am in the morning to take delivery of thousands of little baby chicks. He was out of the house most mornings before the sun was up, and from sunup to sundown, he worked extremely hard. Farming was how he made his living, and it seemed as though this is what he was born to do. He loved it because although it was hard work, the principle of sowing and reaping was very simple, and it always worked beautifully for him. His farm was a thriving one because he sowed the seeds of hard work, patience, and diligence. He counted on the reality that if he was diligent to sow, a harvest would come. This is what God tells us in His Word. His principle of sowing and reaping is a law that we must follow if we expect to see a harvest of His blessings and rewards in our lives.
To sow is to plant, invest, offer or share a seed. As human beings, our seeds can have various qualities and forms. We can sow a seed of an attitude, feeling, or sentiment. So a seed can be many things, but most commonly, when people think about sowing a seed, money comes to mind. God said in Malachi 3:10(NLT),“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” A tithe is a tenth of our gross earnings. It’s the first fruits of our labor and God makes it clear that when we sow into His Kingdom through our tithe, He will greatly reward our obedience and diligence with His provision, protection, and care.
God’s Word tells us that our financial seed is an important one, but the most valuable and precious seed is God’s Word. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ taught others and the disciples by using a parable about a farmer and seeds. He said in Mark 4:14(NLT), “The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.” To invest God’s Word into the life of another is the greatest and most rewarded seed that any of us can sow. With this in mind, it’s apparent from God’s Word that we all have a responsibility to sow into His Kingdom with seeds that are both financial and spiritual. However, many of us are not doing either of these, yet we expect God to reward us. Galatians 6:7 clarifies that His justice is absolute and unwavering, and we will harvest only the seeds we plant.
It doesn’t matter how technologically advanced and sophisticated human beings become; we will never outgrow the laws that God has set forth in His Word. Some people obsess over nature and call it worship. Others idolize human beings and think that God is okay with it. Our Heavenly Father leaves nothing to chance when it comes to what He will and will not accept. The wisdom of Galatians 6:7-8 reminds us that we should never think that God will reward anything and everything with the goodness of His blessings.
Our Heavenly Father is a God of order and this is how He’s set things up. Through His infinite grace and mercy, He’s given us the free-will choice to decide our level of obedience to His Word, but we can’t go against His Word without consequence. If we put the wrong thing out there, the wrong thing is coming back to us. If we sin against God and His Word, Galatians 6:8(NLT) says, “will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.” Some aspect of life will deteriorate when we fail to follow what God says. This is the way life works.
Sowing seeds of resentment, bitterness, jealousy, anger, and disobedience towards God and His Word will not help us to be elevated in God’s blessings. These will not yield rewards, and therefore, we shouldn’t put them out into the universe. Our Heavenly Father requires us to understand that every action, word, thought, feeling, and deed has a reaction. This is law! If we put it out there, it’s coming back to us, and this works for both good and bad alike. So, we need to be very real about where we are and what we’re receiving in life, because if we don’t like our harvest, or it’s a harvest of decay, we need to change the seeds we’re sowing.
Sowing and reaping is a principle that many of us, as single women, are dismissing, denying, or overlooking. We think that God should reward us even though we haven’t sown the proper seeds to produce the harvest we expect. My grandfather would say that this is the problem with people today, they don’t work hard but expect to receive the same rewards as those who do. Proverbs 13:4(NLT) says, “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.” Most of us aren’t lazy when it comes to being on our grind and doing what we gotta do to make our lives work, but often we are lazy when it comes to giving God what He deserves and meeting His requirements. We put our desires and agendas on the top tier and everything else is below. When it comes to our relationship with God, this simply won’t do.
Jesus Christ said in Luke 13:24(NLT), “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.” This isn’t talking about physical labor, but laboring in the things of God like prayer, thankfulness, worship, praise, meditating on God’s Word and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s possible that when God takes a look at the lives of many of us, He sees that we’ve carved out only a little space for Kingdom business, and everything else revolves around what we want and expect to receive. If we keep this up, it’s not going to yield the rewards we expect. We must be clear that we have to sow into God’s Kingdom to receive Kingdom rewards, and if we have any doubts about this, we simply need to ask the Lord about it.
Romans 12:11(NLT) says, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” Our Heavenly Father deserves the best, and we wouldn’t want Him to see us give everyone else our best except Him. That just can’t happen. God tells us in Hosea 10:12(NLT), “I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’” Hard ground is ground that hasn’t been plowed, it hasn’t been turned over so that something wonderful can be planted in it. That’s no shape to be in when we’re expecting the Lord to do something great in our lives.
As God’s single daughters that are continually asking Him to bless us with a good man, now is the time to plant the good seeds of righteousness. Jesus Christ said in Luke 10:2(NLT), “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” You will do yourself the greatest good if you focus on the work of God’s Kingdom more than any other thing. Pray that you will have a harvest that pleases God, and that as you follow where He leads, you will plant the kind of seeds that produce the blessings you desire most.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Sow into God’s Kingdom”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!