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.

 

"All In ..."

“Remember this:  Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Warren Buffett is widely regarded as the best business mind of our time.  He’s written books on wise investing, moreover, he’s lived it.  A $5,000 investment in Berkshire Hathaway (Buffett’s company) in 1965 would be worth over $29 million today.  Oh, if only ...

I tend to be a fairly conservative investor; conversely, a good friend of mine is an “all in” kind of guy.  While I like to contain downside risk, he confidently pursues upside potential while knowing and managing the additional risk that goes with it.  In this world, we cannot have great reward without assuming great risk, nor can we contain risk without also capping our future investment returns.  We have to pick our spot along this risk-reward continuum.

In God’s Kingdom, however, the “economy” is different.  There, if we sow generously, we will reap generously and, if we sow sparingly, we will also reap sparingly.  There, the risk lies in not being “all in.”  In God’s Kingdom, who buries entrusted treasure in the ground so as not to lose it, he is the one who loses it all.

What seed do we sow in the economy of God?  We invest all we have and all we are.  We give of our time and our earthly possessions.  We use the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus Christ, though risen, will still be outwardly manifested through his body – the Church – in the world today.  We sow faith, hope and love, as these three will remain throughout eternity.

Then what, in turn, do we reap?  Paul tells us in today’s passage:  all grace will abound to us ... we will have all we need in all things and at all times ... we will abound in every good work ... he will increase the seeds that we sow, and he will increase the harvest of our righteousness ... we will be made rich in every way so that we will be generous in every way.

And people will praise God because of our service!  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  Aren’t we here for God’s glory?  And isn’t it amazing that, in giving up our kingdom for his, we too are blessed more than when we lived for ourselves?

Let us not live lives that culminate in, “Oh, if only ...”, rather may each one of us agree with one another to sow all we have in the Kingdom of God.  Let us freely and boldly be “all in” today and every today.  God will provide the returns.

In giving of ourselves to others, we lose nothing.  In giving of ourselves to God, we gain everything.