Debbie shares her thought for the week; harvest what you plant.
I was reading Galatians 5 and 6 the other day and looking at the fruit of the spirit. And in Galatians 6 I came across a verse that said:
You will always harvest what you plant.
Galatians 6:7
This got me thinking because harvest is a big topic in schools at the moment and my husband has also become slightly obsessed with watching Clarkson’s Farm. I haven’t watched many episodes with him but one that I did watch was all about him harvesting the crops that he had planted. It wasn’t particularly profitable for him but it was quite an entertaining episode. He had fields of barley, rape and wheat and that’s what he got. No surprise there! You tend to plant what you expect to harvest. I’m pretty sure if you planted a tomato plant you would expect to see tomatoes and you’d be very confused if it was strawberries!
So how does this apply to us as Christians? Should I be surprised if I’m not seeing certain things in my life if I’m not planting them in the first place? The verse in Galatians 6 talks about the people who sow to satisfy the things that they want as opposed to those who sow to live and please the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I don’t know about you but I struggle with some of those and I definitely struggle to show them quite a lot. I have good days or bad days and I want to see more of them in my life but how can I make that happen? What can I do?
Well, the good news is actually it’s not me – it’s not my job to produce the fruit of the spirit. Unlike a farmer who has months of work to prepare the ground, to sow the seeds and then to wait and wait and wait until it’s the perfect time as I learnt on Jeremy Clarkson to harvest, I can just allow the Holy Spirit to do his work in me. I’m like the soil where these things will grow and the more time I spend with God in his word, in times of prayer, worshipping and spending time with other Christians, that’s going to create a really rich soil that will allow the Holy Spirit to produce those things in my life.
So the next time you want more peace, the next time you want to be filled with joy and the next time you want a little bit more patience. Lean into God a bit more. He has a never-ending supply of these fruit and it’s his joy to give them to us. He wants to give it to them. He wants to see this in our life and like any good fruit, it will take time to grow but the more we remain in God, the richer the harvest will be in our lives and we will indeed harvest what we plant.
Every week one of our members shares a short thought aiming to inspire you for the week. You can watch previous Thought For The Week videos by clicking here.