Therefore
be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the
precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early
and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of
the Lord is near. James 5:7-8.
The past few weeks
Brother Van’s sermons have been on the Seven Laws of the Harvest. The first
five laws of the Harvest are:
- Law 1 … Considering …We reap
much we did not sow
- Law 2 … Identifying … We reap
the same in kind as we sow
- Law 3 … Waiting …We reap in a
different season than when we sow
- Law 4 … Remembering …We reap
more than we sow
- Law 5 … Doing …We reap in
proportion as we sow
This Sunday the sermon
will be on Law 6 … Persevering …We reap
the full harvest of the good only if we persevere; the evil comes to harvest on
its own.
Persevering is always a
good message for Christians to remember.
Life is hard and as Christians, it is not any easier, but we have great
tools and a Savior to help us make it through.
However, this message about persevering is about not giving up, not
quitting, like a farmer tending his crops.
When we plant seeds, we can’t just walk away and expect a plant to pop
up. We need to water it and nurture it,
keep the weeds away.
Weeds – now there is
something that does not need nurturing.
Many times they have grown and taken over my flowerbed when I am doing
everything I can to prevent them. They
grow without invitation, without seed planted by us, and without our tender
loving care.
The Plants and the Weeds – the Good and the Bad
When we plant spiritual
seeds in life, sometimes it takes a long, long time to see the fruit of our
labor. But if we keep working and
nurturing the seed we have planted, we will eventually see the full harvest. We can’t give up no matter how tired and
burned out we get. That is what this Law
of the Harvest means. You have to see
the seed all the way through to get the full harvest. You can’t quit in the middle of the season
and expect to get a full return. It
takes time and sometimes a lot of it!
The law says We reap the full harvest of the good only if
we persevere; the evil come to harvest on its own. This makes me think of the weeds in my
flowerbed as being like the evil and sin in our lives that comes to try to
throw us off track. Sin and evil can
appear from nowhere. They are not
invited often, like weeds. They are
usually not seeds that have been planted or nurtured. Weeds are bad for the crop and can keep it
from coming to full harvest. They are
useless and unwanted and they take nutrients away from the crop. Be careful of
the weeds – the sin and evil that waits so willingly to get in and destroy the
work you have been doing for God.
Come this Sunday and 9:30
and 11:00 to hear about Law 6. See you
there!
Scripture to claim:
Be
diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to
be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15
