“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven…There is a time to plant….”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
It’s planting time! The weather girl said last Friday she sees no frost in the future and it’s safe to plant our gardens where I live. My newest hobby is growing a vegetable garden. It’s mostly been a trial and error process with a little research and expert advice thrown in now and then. But one thing that’s pretty obvious, you can’t expect a harvest if you never plant a crop. You can’t have a crop if you don’t plant your seeds.
I have felt this urgency to plant my seeds for the last few weeks now. The weather has been gorgeous. My beds have been cleaned out, I’ve planned my garden and bought the seeds. If I can’t get them in the ground, the only thing growing in my garden will be weeds.
Trying to find a time to plant this year has been difficult, between baseball games and everything else on the schedule. Oh, and there is that soil thing. Throw in coordinating time to borrow the neighbor’s truck to pick up a fresh load of compost and I thought my garden might be reduced to silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.
Planting time reminds me of how important it is to plant God’s Word in our heart. Getting into God’s Word everyday allows a Christ-like spirit to grow in us. The Holy Spirit waters those seeds and produces His fruit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The same thing is true in our lives if we don’t plant the seeds of God’s Word, weeds grow. Weeds like bitterness, selfishness, anger, strife, anxiety, and greed, just to name a few.
It takes a lot of faith to grow a garden. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, so neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. We can do all the prep work and plant the seeds, but truly, only God makes things grow. It’s a supernatural phenomenon that happens when a seed gets just the right amount of nutrients, water and sunlight. So as I plant, I pray that God would show favor on the step of faith I make by planting and He always does.
When I make the effort to plant the seeds of truth from the Bible in my life, God blesses that too. He promises that His Word will not return void. Some things take longer to germinate than others, but if I stay in the Son light, there is always His sweet fruit in my life.
Be encouraged! What a woman sows, she also reaps. Sow broadly the seeds of God’s Word in your life as well as in the lives of others. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Galatians 6:9