One of my significant financial regrets occurred a number of
years ago when as a subscriber to the prairie agricultural newspaper the
Western Producer I came across a classified advertisement for 120
acres. The asking price was $39, 500 ( I’m
under no illusions that this was a perfect patch of paradise so don’t get
sidetracked by issues of whether the land was half under water or a former
toxic dump).
In my conversation with the fella who was selling he informed
me that the land was currently being rented out to a nearby farmer who had
already put in a crop. For the sake of
my example let’s say we work out all the legal stuff and I purchase the land complete
with its growing crop of canola.
Let’s say that, with the canola in full bloom, I discover I
have severe allergies to canola and decide that I would prefer a field of
barley instead.
What’s going to happen?
Will my crop change from canola to barley?
What if I pray for it to change?
What if I claim it by faith and tell everyone it has
changed?
What if I post signs saying “THIS IS BARLEY”?
I’ve seen this sort of thing happen too many times to
believers, ministries and churches.
Well-meaning believers who have been convinced that renaming a crop, or
claiming a change of crop will make it magically happen. And I used the word “magically” intentionally.
The Biblical principle is
this: You reap what you sow.
Now, I can auction off all my canola machinery and buy a
whole new set of all the machinery and equipment I need to harvest barley, but
that still won’t change what is in the field!
Too often churches and ministries discover this the hard
way. Their current leader or pastor
leaves (jumped, pushed, dropped, sails) and when the new “machinery” arrives
they expect him/her to change a crop of canola into barley.
It doesn’t work that way.
It is a soundly biblical and eternally consistent truth that
you reap what you sow. I like how
utterly emphatic the Apostle Paul is in writing this truth to the first century
believers in Galatia.
Galatians 6:7
(PNWiV)
7 Do not be duped:
God is not mocked,
Whatever you sow, that’s precisely
what you will also reap.
I have no way of knowing what season you personally (or your
family) may be entering. But I sense in
my own spirit that the I, my family and the ministry in which I am serving are
entering a time of sowing.
If that’s true… if that’s also you… it requires… it demands
that we be intensely vigilant. It
requires us to tune ourselves intentionally to the whisper of the Holy Spirit
because what we do in this season is going to have ramifications not just for
the present but from now until it is harvested.
What you “put in the ground now”…
·
relationally…
·
in time…
·
in energy…
·
in ministry…
·
in attitude…
·
in programming…
·
in finances…
…all of these and more – is going
to “die” and then “multiply” (John 12:24)
Plant wisely
…just sayin’
This is very timely! And as usual, just what I needed to hear! Is it possible to be at a place of reaping from prior decisions and yet also in the stage before sowing again (is that fallow? I should know this but I'm really a city girl).
ReplyDeleteI know you will sow wisely, btw. :)
Hey Jen! - Exactly. In fact, as we reap we should be thinking intentionally about what we are wanting to sow next. Too often what we sow is a reaction to what we are reaping and we end up with a downward spiral of bad-reap-bad-sow-bad-reap. If we recognize the season we can break the cycle but it means intentionally sowing even in the midst of reaping a challenging "crop"
DeleteBTW fallow ground is when the farmer let's the land sit for a season without any crop :0)