TEARS END AT REAPING!

God’s people are sowers of God’s love wherever they go. For them the whole world is their field and their prime concern is to sow the seeds of love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, gentleness and such other seeds of the fruit of God’s Spirit which are entrusted with them. But the enemy is out and out creating hindrances to sowing. The enemy knows that if these seeds are sowed, they will sprout and grow, and so he tries to see to it that sowing is hindered. The enemy tries to make the lives of God’s people filled with grief, pain, misery, sickness, loss, distress and the like so that their attention will be drawn away from their primary purpose in life. Many are drawn away through shifting their focus from the spiritual to the material, and from heavenly to the earthly. Those who overcome these hindrances and sow are often challenged to sow in spite of their rough experiences in life. They are often persuaded by their love for the Master to hold the plow with one hand and wipe their tears and sow with the other. They hope that one of these days the Lord will send rain their way so that the field will be soaked to help the seeds to sprout. Often the enemy comes to tell them that these seeds won’t spout and grow because the environment is unfavourable. He will also bring to their attention the past failures of God’s people in sowing. In spite of it all, there are those who sow from their hospital beds, sick beds in solitary confinements or surgical tables. There are those who sow even while they are hungry and thirsty and do not have any thing to eat. Some go to the field to sow amidst threats of danger, misrepresentations, misunderstandings and criticisms from co-sowers which make it extremely difficult to keep moving forward. Yet some of God’s children sow and trust in the Lord to sprout their seeds as they continue to sow with tears in their eyes. They have a hope that if they sow, the Lord will allow their seeds to sprout and grow to become the kind of plant that the Lord would want it to be. They are promised great results which will make them reap plenty of crops and come home with shouts of joy.

Dear friend, are you discouraged by the environment of hatred, rivalry, conflicts, groupism, competition and disunity while you sow the seeds the Lord has entrusted with you? Is there an air of discouragement around that tells you that perhaps there won’t be any result for your hard work and toil? Are you often broken hearted by the difficult situations created by the enemy which make your eyes filled with grief and tears? But these unfavourable situations need not discourage you because the Master of the Fields has asked you to go and sow His seeds around with the guarantee that if we sow in His name, He will give us fruit. These are fruit not for us to enjoy, but for us to submit to the Master for His glory and honour. The field is His and the seeds are His. Moreover, we are His and we go at His commandment. He has reassured us that we shall reap what we sow and that some of the seeds will bring forth crops of several folds. Let us today use our tears to soak the field. Let us also soak the sees in our tears so that they will sprout at the right time. He will help us to wipe our tears and keep our hearts at peace with Him so that we can go forward to sow with courage and confidence. The result is guaranteed by the Lord of the Fields. If we cry before the Lord, He will come to our aid and strengthen us to sow with the hope that He will give us the increase at the right time. While we go to sow, our physical, emotional and spiritual needs are looked after by the Lord. He will be our shade when the sun is hot and will cover us under His wings when the rain or snow falls on us. He will keep us under His shadow when the mighty winds of opposition and hindrance will try to batter us. He will walk with us when we go to sow and guide us about where to sow at what time. He will also fill our hearts with the blessed hope that one of these days we will see the crops which will help us to shout with joy.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 – Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

Thought for Today
The tears of the sower are dried by the hope of the joyful brightness of reaping.