Someone had to plant the seeds.
With who and where are you actively sowing and planting seeds to bring someone to Jesus? A harvest doesn’t just happen. You and I have to be intentional about reaching others for Jesus.
Someone maintained the field over time.
During the spring and summer the farmer was out there daily working doing what needed to be done so that as much as he was responsible for he could have a successful harvest . We maintain a potential spiritual harvest by daily prayer for others, treating others the way we want to be treated, sacrificing our time to help others , etc....
Someone did the work of reaping the harvest.
In God’s kingdom sometimes we reap the harvest of the person we were working on. Many times , we reap the harvest that others worked on. Regardless, we must be ready to do the work of reaping the harvest. The farmers we saw on our trip were out past dark reaping the harvest. This reminded me that reaping the harvest isn’t always on our timetable or when it is comfortable for us. I’m sure that farmer had other things he would have rather been doing rather than sitting on a combine or tractor past dark. But he knew it was time to reap.
Finally, all these farmers had sown seed with expectancy.
They expected a harvest. They didn’t sow seed with the expectation that nothing would come of it. Are you expecting a harvest with the seed you are sowing in others lives?
In my own life I have been blessed to see this process play out over and over. ( and it’s not solely because of being a pastor. Many times it has been outside of what I was doing at church).
I have sowed seeds with some individuals and it took over 10 years before there was a harvest. Some people I sowed seeds on, but others reaped the harvest. Sometimes, others sowed the seed on a individual, but I reaped the harvest. The point? Always be about working the field and there will be a harvest.
Please , be encouraged . I am someone who had didn’t necessarily have religious classes as a child as others. As a teenager and young adult the only time I was in a church was for a wedding or funeral. I didn’t start following Jesus until I was almost 28. If God can use me to reap a spiritual harvest in other’s lives , he can use you.
I’d like to leave you with some verses in the Bible on harvest:
“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."”
Matthew 9:36-38
“Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."”
John 4:34-38
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.”
1 Corinthians 3:5-9
Troy
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