What are you sowing?
Thou shalt “moweth” what thou soweth!
It may take time but whatever you plant will eventually start to show up in your life.
Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.
The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life. (Gal. 6:7-9 MSG)
The ole’ King James Version says, “… whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
What are you sowing?
It is easy to focus on good and bad seed but the truth is, some of us aren’t sowing anything! We have a scarcity mentality. We hold onto what we have so tight that it rots in our hand. Every farmer knows you have to set aside seed to succeed!
Have you been taking without giving? Participating in groups, clubs, gatherings, activities or causes without doing your part to support the work?
Are you so focused on holding on to every little grain that you fail to invest in the potential of exponential impact?
Proverbs 11:24-30 is a strong passage on the benefits of a giving attitude. Much of the generous giving mindset is counter intuitive.
Points from the passage:
Give freely and become more wealthy.
The generous prosper.
Those who hoard their grain lack favor. Those who search for ways to do good find it.
The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life.
Generosity is an investment not an expense.
It may take time, but seeds of good deeds have a way of making their way back around. They fall on fertile ground!
You might say, “I’m too broke to give. I’m experiencing hard times. I worked hard for what I have and don’t have enough to invest in good things.”
If this is your attitude, beware. What you sow is what you will reap. You are setting yourself up for more of the same. You will never move beyond where you are today.
Why? The scripture is clear. You reap what you sow. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Whatever thou soweth, thou wilt “moweth”! Sow nothing? Nothing is what you will get.
Don’t blame anyone but yourself. We serve a God that says it is impossible to please him without faith. He is not a genie in a bottle but he rewards risk, faith and trust. He invites us into his economy. He is a multiplier not a divider. Things add up with him. His goal is to bring favor and blessing, not to take away or curse.
Doubt it? Show me otherwise. Where in scripture does God ever seek to punish us unjustly. Even when bad things happen he has a way of using it for good in the lives of those who are called according to his purpose.
Does God guarantee prosperity? There is only one way to find out. One thing we can know, retaining a tight grip on God’s blessings is going to bring about the x-factor. He calls us to share the love, wealth and blessing we have not earned but received by his mercy and grace!
So, what do you have to give? Our tendency is to focus on cash. If money is all we have to give then we are missing the point.
God blesses us in many ways. When he does he expects us to share that blessing with others.
We have the opportunity every day to give of our time, talent and treasure.
Don’t be so legalistic and narrow minded that you get trapped into thinking there is only one way to give.
A giving mindset looks for opportunities to give in many ways. How can you sow good seeds with your time, talent and treasure?
There is something exciting about planting a seed and anticipating the first sign of a sprout breaking through.
Decide today to be more generous with your time, talent and treasure.
Get ready. When you plant a seed in faith, God has a way of bringing the rain and sunshine needed to produce an abundant harvest the positions you to bless others as you too have been blessed.
