Preparing For Harvest

It’s that time of year again!  The corn is ready to harvest.  Cherries, peaches and many other kinds of delicious produce can be found in abundance at the Farmer's Market as well as at various stands and locations around the valley.  Yes, it is truly one of my favorite times of the year as I anticipate the tasty meals that all of this produce will make possible. 

Having grown up on a farm, I am reminded that all of this abundance doesn’t just happen.  Early in the year long hours were spent preparing the soil for the seed that would be planted later.  That same seed was then cultivated, watered, and nurtured through the long, hot summer until it had sprouted matured and produced the wonderful produce we are now seeing.  As I tell my children, food doesn’t just come from Wal-Mart!

            Spiritual harvest is very similar.  Everyone loves to see new spiritual life.  A life transformed and renewed by the power of God.  What we often miss is all that God has been doing previously.  The ground prepared by the prayers of loving people and the prevenient work of the Holy Spirit of God.  The biblical seed planted by faithful teachers of the word or a word of testimony given at a critical time.  The faithful ministries of those who carefully nurture young believers helping them grow in their new life in Christ.   Yes, spiritual harvest is much more than a moment in time.  The end result is a mature follower of Jesus but much has gone into bringing that person to that place in their life.  Paul’s writing to the believers in Corinth reminds us of this cooperative work of spiritual harvest.  “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-8) 

God has a place for all of us in his spiritual harvest field.  He faithfully nurtures our lives, working in the good soil of our hearts, so that through us He might produce a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13:8)  I want to be a willing participant in God’s cooperative work so that when the harvest season comes I might embody the spirit of the Psalmist who writes, “He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”  (Psalms 126:6)

Anticipating the harvest,

Pastor Buddy