Am I Sowing What I Wish to Reap?

You reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow. 

Charles Stanley

Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Traveling through Georgia during the late summer and fallcannot help but turn one’s mind to harvest time.  Combines are on the road, tractors are atwork in the fields, and newly formed hay bales dot the vast pastures.  The farmers are reaping the results of theirwork.  The seeds sown during the springhave produced the crops that will sustain their families and allow them toplant again – a perfect picture of God’s principle of sowing and reaping.

Think about it.  Theyplanted cotton seeds to reap cotton.  Soybeanseeds yielded soybeans.  They sowed cornand peanuts and, yep, they harvested corn and peanuts.  No surprises! Seems simple, but we strugglewith this principle in personal lives. Sometimes we even call it unfair when it seems that the consequences in lifeare more than we can bear.

Galatians 6:⁷ Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,that shall he also reap. ⁸ For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reapcorruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap lifeeverlasting.

Iused to think that ‘sowing to the flesh’ was synonymous with sowing wildoats.  Sowing wild oats carries the meaningof irresponsible living, reckless partying, and conducting a generally carelesslifestyle.  However, in scripture, ‘sowingto the flesh’ does not require the commission of cardinal sins, such asstealing, cheating, murder, or infidelity. ‘Sowing to the flesh’ deals with the state of the heart.

I ‘sowto the flesh’ when my entire focus is on this world, this life, and all thatgoes with it.

Ican ‘sow to the flesh’ and still be considered an upstanding, even righteous,citizen of thisworld.

There’sthe problem, though.  My citizenship as aChristian is not of this world; I am a citizen of God’s Kingdom, and my focusand priorities must reflect that.  What Ilove and how I spend my time are indications of my sowing habits.

Where do my thoughts live?How is my time spent?Which home do I dream and speak about?What attitudes govern my actions?How am I influencing those around me?What are my favorite activities -(the ones that consume the most of my thoughts and time)?

Itis the principle of ‘first’.  What takesfirst place in my life?

WhenI answer that question, I can see my basket of seeds that I am sowing.  Then I recognize if I am sowing to the fleshor to the Spirit.

Verse9 (And let us not beweary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.)assures me that sowing good seeds does not go unnoticed or unrewarded.  I will reap a good harvest from following God– a harvest for which I do not need to apologize.

I sow good seeds when I invest in the life of a child, when I act compassionately,when I place service over self,when I choose love over bitterness and grace over condemnation,when I share God's word rather than the world's philosophy,when my focus is on building God's Kingdom rather than my own.

I am busy sowing every day.  Every choice and every action is a seed that can bring forth fruit.  I just want to be sure that what I sow is what I wish to reap.

Have you checked your seed basket lately?

Job 4:8⁸As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sowtrouble reap it.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

II Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.