Most all of us know this title as it applies to gardening, farming and growing produce. Sow a crop, reap a harvest. The first step of planting, is that the soil must be properly tilled to form the right seedbed with weeds eliminated. The seed or plants need planted at just the right depth, not to deep, and not to shallow. The seed needs moisture and the proper amount of fertilizer to keep it healthy for growth.

The same is true in our lives as well. We must properly prepare our hearts to allow God’s light and truth to be planted. We must pull up the weeds of anger, fear, worry, anxiety and despair and let God’s love in. Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteous­ness; Reap in mercy; Break up that fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.” We must then spend time in God’s word through scripture, devotionals, and through prayer.

All throughout scripture and especially during Jesus’ ministry we hear a great deal about being fruitful, bearing fruit, planting seeds, and harvesting. This language was used to give people a better understanding of what was being said and what they should do to serve and obey God’s commands and His ways. The same words are as true today as they were 2000 years ago.

The parable of the Sower best describes where I was as a hypo­crite for over 53 years. Pretending to be a Christian on the outside while living my own selfish ways on the inside. The desires of my heart were anything but God’s ways. As Jesus said in Matthew 13:13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

That, my friends, is where I was most of my life, and it could be exactly where you are at with your life as well. How foolish and ignorant I was.

As Jesus says in Matthew 13:19-23 “When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart. This is the one who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has not root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecutions arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. He who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and then the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches chokes the word, he becomes unfruitful. But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. “

Is it possible like me, that you are struggling in life because you just can’t accept God’s word as truth? Is your heart just not in the right place to allow the Lord to plant His seeds of love, grace and truth?

What Jesus is telling us is that we will live with the results of our actions and need to pay attention to understand what is being said. Jesus’ words are the source of our power that helps us make good decisions and gives us the thoughts to shape our hearts and minds.

Matthew 7:24 “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock.”

Galatians 6:8,9 “For He who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

Make no mistake about, should you continue to reject and rebel against God you will pay a price of condemnation.” We will all be judged for our actions.

1 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judge­ment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad.”

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.”

Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.”

Proverbs 5:21,22 “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. And He ponders all his paths, his own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin.”

There is a quote from Charles Reade and is known as the law of the harvest “Sow a thought-reap an action; Sow an action - reap a habit; Sow a habit - reap a character; Sow a character – reap a destiny.”

James 3:17,18 “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righ­teousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Sowing God’s words are at the heart of what Jesus commands all Christians to be doing, to draw more people into the loving Kingdom of God. Searching and seeking out lost souls is spread­ing God’s words of truth and love to those in need and in despair. Serving the needs of the poor and elderly within our communities is always God’s way of taking care of one another.

We all have choices on what we sow in our hearts and in our minds. Once the seeds of love, truth, goodness and peace are sown to oth­ers, we can and will reap a harvest for the Kingdom of God.

Sow Love, Sow Peace, Sow Hope, Sow Encouragement, Sow good­ness, Sow Compassion, Sow Gentleness Sow Support, Sow patience, Sow Kindness, Sow justice, Sow Righteousness, Sow Truth, Sow Loyalty and Commitment, Sow Joy and Happiness. Above all else, Sow love in your heart and do what is pleasing to God and in return Reap Everlasting Life.

Lord Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love;  Where there is injury, pardon;  Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope;  Where there is darkness, light;  Where there is sadness, joy;  O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;  To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving  That we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;  And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen

This blog taken from the Book “Heart and Soul"   https://ltcchristianapparel.com/pages/books-by-ted-stuckey chapter 9.