You Can’t Expect To Bear Fruit If You Don’t Plant Seeds

Two neighbors were talking about their gardens. One garden was lush and producing an abundance of fruits and vegetables. The other neighbor had nothing but weeds.  When he asked the other what he was doing to make it so, the neighbor replied simply, “Planting seeds.”

This humorous story has life applications. Seeds can be planted that will produce good fruit in relationships, marriages, jobs, and in one’s goals and dreams.  The seeds take many forms, like doing things for people, saying the right things, going the extra mile, showing love to people who may not deserve it, and many other ways. What are you doing to produce positive results in these areas of your life? Are you planting seeds in your marriage? In your family? In your work or vocation?

The sad part is that many people are not planting seeds at all. That is why there are “weeds” in the form of high divorce rates, dysfunctional families, emotional problems, and social ills. People are not doing what is required to cultivate their “gardens of life.” When you don’t plant seeds all you can expect is weeds.

How about your spiritual life? In Luke 8:5-8 we read the parable of the sower. The seed spoken of here is defined in verse 11 as the word of God. Verses 12-15 name the three things that keep the seed of God’s truth from bearing fruit: the devil, temptation and falling away, and the worries, riches, and pleasures of life. But the one who does not allow these “weeds” to take root is the person who bears fruit by persevering in God’s truth. We must consistently water our spiritual garden, daily, not just when we go to church. What happens when a garden is watered only once a week? We all know. It dies. There are many dead Christians with no fruit being produced.

The word of God will produce the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-26: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What’s in your life? Has it been taken over by weeds or are you consistently bearing fruit by sowing the seed? Sow seeds in your spiritual life. The fruit produced will then bring positive results in every other area.