Sow to Please the Spirit

PRAYER PRACTICE

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

DAILY READING

Galatians 6:1-10


REFLECTION

What Are You Planting?

by Pastor Jeff Morlock

 

As a teenager, I worked for farmers each summer, preferring harvest-related tasks like bailing hay or picking pickles to the early summer task of planting. Especially tomatoes. Sitting on a transplanter for 10 hours a day requires focus. Becoming distracted means failing to supply a young plant to one of the constantly rotating “arms” that seeks to grab it, resulting in an eventual bare spot in the field come harvest time. "You reap what you sow”, right? And spiritually speaking, we’re always sowing thoughts and deeds. When you sow to please the flesh (self-centered ways of being human) you’ll reap self-centered ways of being human . But if you sow to please the Spirit (God-centered, other-oriented ways of being human), you will reap the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and more.  

The books you read, the people you hang out with, the things you do for entertainment, and the thoughts that preoccupy your mind are all acts of sowing. Every time you nurse a grudge or objectify someone instead of recognizing God’s image in them, every time you wallow in self-pity or complain about the shortcomings of others, you sow to the flesh. And the results are the exact opposite of victory and blessing. Sowing to please the flesh hinders community. Its fruit of self-righteousness keeps us from forgiving one another’s sins. Its fruit of greed keeps us from being generous. Its fruit of pride keeps us from bearing one another’s burdens.

But lest we become discouraged, Paul says, ^“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Keep going. Keep sowing, Paul urges. Focus not on past failures, which are forgiven in God’s grace, but on sowing to please the Spirit today, giving thanks for the bumper crop to come!

Prayer: God our Father, lifter of heavy burdens, I know that I cannot by my own effort obey what this Scripture says. Empower me by your Holy Spirit to crucify the flesh with its selfish desires, and to sow in ways that will build up those around me and give you glory. In the name of your Son, Jesus, whose body was sown in death, but raised to give his people a harvest of eternal life. Amen.