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Seedtime and Harvest
By Mark Anthony McCray
Genesis 8: 22 "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night
Shall not cease."
God promises in his word that the laws of sowing and reaping, or seedtime and harvest, will be in effect as long as there is an Earth. In fact, just as certain that there will be a tomorrow is the assurance we can have that, we will receive a harvest on the seeds that we have sown. Think about that for a moment. Think about how sure we are that tomorrow will come. When people are going through their most difficult times, they console themselves with statements that tomorrow will be a new day. That the Earth is still spinning. That at least we can put that day behind us. There are even songs written about it..."the sun will come out tomorrow! Tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow..."
Think about how sure you are that there will be a tomorrow and transfer that to your thinking about seedtime and harvest. God tells us that they go along together, so we must never doubt this fact of life. So many of us doubt.
This is one of the main things that robs Christians of experiencing God's best. We let fear choke the urging that we receive from men and women of God - even from the Holy Spirit himself - to sow into the work of ministry and into other people. We are afraid that if we let something go, we will have lack. We clinch onto a little because we feel as if having a little is better than having nothing. We are blinded to remember that a little seed can become a lot.
Life is farming. It's all about sowing and reaping. That's all there is to it. If you think about it thusly, we don't have happenings; we have harvests.
Everything that comes to us is a harvest of seeds sown and grown to fruition. Everything. Your weight is a harvest of the seeds you've sown into your fitness and health. Your relationships with your loved ones are the harvests of the seeds of love and respect that you've sown all grown up. Your bank account balance is the harvest of the seeds you've sown financially in the form of supporting ministry, your work and your own financial disciplines. Your effectiveness in ministry is largely the harvest of the seeds of prayer that you've sown. Everything that we have in life is the result of seeds we have sown in the past.
Therefore, in setting goals and making wishes on our futures, we should think about the harvest that we desire and then begin to think about how, where and how much seed to sow towards the outcome.
That's the good news. If everything that we have is the result of seeds sown, that means we have the ability to change our future by sowing seeds today. If we want to experience a closer relationship with our kids, we can sow time into them. If we want to run faster, we sow more time running laps. If we want to earn more on our jobs, we sow more time increasing our values by working harder and studying more.
Financially speaking, for the Believer the first step is to begin by bringing back to God that which is rightfully His. He says in Malachi that the tithe belongs to Him and, therefore, there can't really be any giving until you have put yourself in right standing with God in terms of no longer being a thief in His eyes. Read the third chapter of Malachi. Ten percent of your income is due and payable to the Father every time you have an increase and he has set up his churches as receptacles.
How much seed should one sow? Strange question. Exciting question. One answer to the question is another question: how much seed do you have?!? Financially speaking, one way of looking at it is that we should sow as much as we don't need to eat! Of course, we need to eat, that is to say provide for our families, pay bills and the like. But after that, what would be wrong with putting almost every other dollar to work for you?
I have come to the point of view that we should sow all that we can sow every time it is seed time. There will always be another seed time. This is a good thing. That's because not only does the Lord promise seedtime, but he promised harvest as well. When you sow, you've got a harvest coming. And here's the wonderful thing about it: harvest are multiples of the seed and sometimes many, many times the amount of the seed sown!
But, sow your seed!
What folly it would be to till ground and make neat planting rows, wake up early to water the ground, protect your plants by erecting a shade, and watching and waiting for a thriving plant to burst through the ground when you had not taken the time to put a seed in the ground.
I believe that this is where most Christians are living. No seed is in the ground, but we are looking for a harvest. As basic as it would seem, the point needs to be repeated: if there is no seed, there isn't even the possibility of a harvest!
Sow your seed!
Shall not cease."
God promises in his word that the laws of sowing and reaping, or seedtime and harvest, will be in effect as long as there is an Earth. In fact, just as certain that there will be a tomorrow is the assurance we can have that, we will receive a harvest on the seeds that we have sown. Think about that for a moment. Think about how sure we are that tomorrow will come. When people are going through their most difficult times, they console themselves with statements that tomorrow will be a new day. That the Earth is still spinning. That at least we can put that day behind us. There are even songs written about it..."the sun will come out tomorrow! Tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow..."
Think about how sure you are that there will be a tomorrow and transfer that to your thinking about seedtime and harvest. God tells us that they go along together, so we must never doubt this fact of life. So many of us doubt.
This is one of the main things that robs Christians of experiencing God's best. We let fear choke the urging that we receive from men and women of God - even from the Holy Spirit himself - to sow into the work of ministry and into other people. We are afraid that if we let something go, we will have lack. We clinch onto a little because we feel as if having a little is better than having nothing. We are blinded to remember that a little seed can become a lot.
Life is farming. It's all about sowing and reaping. That's all there is to it. If you think about it thusly, we don't have happenings; we have harvests.
Everything that comes to us is a harvest of seeds sown and grown to fruition. Everything. Your weight is a harvest of the seeds you've sown into your fitness and health. Your relationships with your loved ones are the harvests of the seeds of love and respect that you've sown all grown up. Your bank account balance is the harvest of the seeds you've sown financially in the form of supporting ministry, your work and your own financial disciplines. Your effectiveness in ministry is largely the harvest of the seeds of prayer that you've sown. Everything that we have in life is the result of seeds we have sown in the past.
Therefore, in setting goals and making wishes on our futures, we should think about the harvest that we desire and then begin to think about how, where and how much seed to sow towards the outcome.
That's the good news. If everything that we have is the result of seeds sown, that means we have the ability to change our future by sowing seeds today. If we want to experience a closer relationship with our kids, we can sow time into them. If we want to run faster, we sow more time running laps. If we want to earn more on our jobs, we sow more time increasing our values by working harder and studying more.
Financially speaking, for the Believer the first step is to begin by bringing back to God that which is rightfully His. He says in Malachi that the tithe belongs to Him and, therefore, there can't really be any giving until you have put yourself in right standing with God in terms of no longer being a thief in His eyes. Read the third chapter of Malachi. Ten percent of your income is due and payable to the Father every time you have an increase and he has set up his churches as receptacles.
How much seed should one sow? Strange question. Exciting question. One answer to the question is another question: how much seed do you have?!? Financially speaking, one way of looking at it is that we should sow as much as we don't need to eat! Of course, we need to eat, that is to say provide for our families, pay bills and the like. But after that, what would be wrong with putting almost every other dollar to work for you?
I have come to the point of view that we should sow all that we can sow every time it is seed time. There will always be another seed time. This is a good thing. That's because not only does the Lord promise seedtime, but he promised harvest as well. When you sow, you've got a harvest coming. And here's the wonderful thing about it: harvest are multiples of the seed and sometimes many, many times the amount of the seed sown!
But, sow your seed!
What folly it would be to till ground and make neat planting rows, wake up early to water the ground, protect your plants by erecting a shade, and watching and waiting for a thriving plant to burst through the ground when you had not taken the time to put a seed in the ground.
I believe that this is where most Christians are living. No seed is in the ground, but we are looking for a harvest. As basic as it would seem, the point needs to be repeated: if there is no seed, there isn't even the possibility of a harvest!
Sow your seed!
Mark Anthony McCray is the CEO of Houston, TX based First Capital Commercial
Finance (http://www.dealsdone.net) and CashOutGuy.Com
as well as the Founder of "Live Big, Die Empty" a ministry and
movement designed to help people live life more abundantly and walk in the
purposes for which they were created. Write or call 832-566-2001 for more
information and follow Mark on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MARKMCCRAY or http://www.twitter.com/LiveBigDieEmpty
