I was on my morning walk passing through some cotton
fields as the sun was rising this morning. I stopped and took some photos, two
of which are in this blog post. As I
was walking and looking, I was thinking and praying. I want to share with you some
of those thoughts prompted by God’s whispers on my walk.
First, I have to stop and say: Praise God for the beauty in this world! How I long for the New Earth, where beauty
will not be marred by any sin or sadness or evil.
Most of my thoughts were related to harvest. Both the coming cotton harvest, and then the
spiritual harvest.
To my unprofessional eyes (I’m not a farmer and don’t
even have a garden), the harvest looks very promising. In recent weeks some of my farmer friends
affirmed that it does, indeed, look like there is potential for a very good
harvest.
How did this happen?
It takes a lot of work. The fields have to be prepared
even before the seeds are planted. Then,
there is the planting, followed by months of fertilizing, and protecting the
plants from weeds and insects. Finally,
there will be a final stage of preparation for harvest and the harvest itself. Those
are the things which God gives the farmers strength to do. It’s hard, tiring
work.
But there are other factors the farmer has no direct
control over. Like getting the right amount of rain at the right time, and praying
that a hurricane doesn’t come and destroy the crops at the last minute. And then there is the sunshine. The most
important factors are really all in God’s hands, but He invites us to be
involved even in these through prayer.
The Spiritual
Harvest
Even more important than farm harvests (which do affect
many lives), are spiritual harvests.
Two major types of spiritual harvest come to mind. The first is a harvest of people believing
the Good News, falling in love with Jesus, having their sins forgiven,
receiving God’s gracious gift of eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus,
and being added to local churches.
As with a farm harvest, God strengthens us to do a lot of
work even before harvest time:
* We plant seeds by sharing the love of Christ and the
truth of His Gospel.
* We water those seeds with more love and prayers.
* We do what we can with God’s help to keep the pests
from destroying the harvest.
* We recognize that we have important roles to play, but
that only God can give new life and a harvest, and so we pray, pray, pray.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
(1
Cor. 3:6 ESV)
When we think of a “harvest”, we often think of large
numbers of people coming into the Kingdom.
I sure do want that and work towards that and pray for that. But don’t forget the beauty of each individual
life.
This brings us to the
second type of harvest. When the Bible
speaks of bearing fruit, most of the time the emphasis is on Holy Spirit fruit
in each of our lives. God is working on
transforming each of us to become more and more like Jesus. He is cleaning out the gunk of sin and
deception in our hearts and minds. He is
filling us with truth and love. His
Spirit is producing the fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
(Galatians 5:22-23)
This type of
harvest also requires hard work. Much of
the work is pleasant, but some of it is difficult. We read God’s Word and pray and go to church
and serve and confess and learn and grow and make mistakes and repent. Our part is important, but again it is God
who is giving the growth.
When I think of
the two types of harvest together, I pray to God:
Lord, work in us
and through us to help more and more people become more and more like Jesus.
Please bless us
with a bountiful, beautiful harvest.
For Your glory.
In Jesus Name.
Amen.
Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .
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