Reaping what we sow!

irenemcg · #1 15th November 2006, 09:05 AM

Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Gal 6:8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Gal 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Christmas and New Year for many people in our contemporary Western culture, Christmas is associated with materialism, commercialism, and self-indulgence. There is a solemn warning against ignoring God!
Paul tells us here in Galatians though that our actions, our words, our thoughts, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money; we’re going to sow something that we’re going to get back when we reap it. We reap what we sow, and we reap in greater quantities than we sow. When the farmer sows wheat, he reaps wheat, sometimes thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold. Schofield remarks that “the Spirit is not speaking here to sinners about their sins, but to saints about their meanness.”
We should notice that this reminder follows an exhortation on Christian giving. Looking at it from this perspective, we can see that sowing to the flesh means spending money on oneself, caring more about our own pleasures and comforts, possibly holding back what we could be giving to God. Sowing to the Spirit is when looked at as regards financial giving is using one’s money for the furtherance of God’s interests. However, I believe there is more to it than that.
If you or I as Christians are going to live in the flesh, we will produce the things of the flesh. That does not, however, mean that you will lose your salvation, but it does mean that you will lose your reward, which will make it a day of shame and regret when you stand before our Lord at the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ where we will receive our rewards.

The law of sowing and reaping is at the heart of world evangelism.
Joh 4:35 Do you not say, "There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
Joh 4:36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
Joh 4:37 For in this the saying is true: "One sows and another reaps.'
Joh 4:38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors." Our lifetime is our “seedtime,” and our harvest will yield multiplications of the fruit of the seed we have sown if we sow wisely. This calls us to cast off reserve and to give God the finest “soil” of our lives so that there may be a rich harvest.

Hos 8:7 "They sow the wind,
And reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no bud;
It shall never produce meal.
If it should produce,
Aliens would swallow it up.

Do you see the negative power of “sowing” for evil rather than for God. If sowing to evil (the flesh) may reap a whirlwind, how much more may righteous sowing (to the Spirit) make room for God .The Holy Spirit came as a rushing, mighty wind at Pentecost.
Could God work in holy hurricane power if He can find us sowing to the Spirit? A Spirit controlled life guarantees our partnership with God in reaping a harvest for worldwide increase in His Kingdom.

So, if we don’t want to suffer this frustration of reaping from the flesh, we have to sow to the Spirit. And at Christmastime one special way to do this is to keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus.
In the next couple of weeks when your standing in those queues in Stores and Supermarkets remember that the folks in the world around you can’t see Jesus, they are blinded by the things of this world, but they can see you and I when we are standing in amongst them, may we reflect Christ in us and not let the impatience and frustrations of Christmas shopping, which if we are truthful we all feel at least in part show through. May they instead see Christ in us.
Abraham believed God, he was a man of faith and walked with Him in the land of Canaan. Abraham had a son named Isaac. When Isaac became a young man, Abraham took him to the top of Mount Moriah and in obedience to God’s command, Abraham prepared to offer his son as a sacrifice. God, didn’t let him go through with it, but you can see the level of trust and obedience that this man had. Abraham sowed to the Spirit and he reaped life everlasting.
My prayer is that we shall sow to the Spirit and not the flesh and thus reap the blessings of Kingdom living both in the present, knowing a life more abundant now and in eternity.

Joh 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

We need to sow to the Spirit though to know that abundant life, flee the things of the flesh.