Spiritual Sowing And Reaping

Tractors and other farm implements are now busy tilling, fertilizing, and planting seeds for this year’s crops of a variety of vegetables and fruits. Where I live it is sowing season for the farmers. Later this year all of this will be harvested and reaped, available on roadside stands and exported. We will reap what has been sown.

There is also spiritual sowing and reaping with one’s walk with the Lord, and within the family of believers. The Bible has much to say about this.

Sowing to the flesh or the Spirit. ” The one who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life”(Galatians 6:8). There is a story about a man who had 2 dogs. One was named “flesh” and the other named “Spirit.” The two dogs were always getting in fights. Someone asked him which dog usually wins? The man replied, “The one I feed the most.”

Sowing in giving. ”The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). God will increase our resources to be generous in every way (2 Corinthians 9:10-11).

Sowing our spiritual gifts and abilities, Ephesians 4: 11-14. Even though this passage does not use the words “sowing and reaping,” the general concept is present. As we as Christians use our gifts for the Lord’s work, the things listed in this passage will happen. What are they?“…the unity of the faith…the knowledge of the Son of God…so that we may no longer be children, tossed about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes”. That is some very significant reaping!

Sowing the seeds of the gospel. ”My word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it”(Isaiah 55:11). The exciting thing about writing for this ministry is that the articles that are written are used by God in the heart of someone in the world, to either build up the body of believers or to bring someone to the saving grace of Christ.

Sowing seeds in our conversations. Let our speech be “only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear”(Ephesians 4:29).

Sowing seeds in doing good. “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up”(Galatians 6:9).

There is, however, an important admonition in scripture about what not to sow. Proverbs 6:9 says that one of the six things that God hates is the who” sows discord among brothers.”

What kind of spiritual seeds are you, and myself included, planting in the lives of others, and within  the body of Christ as a whole? What specific areas above are in most need of sowing? What have you reaped from your sowing in any of these areas?