You don’t need to be a farmer or an experienced agriculturalist or horticulturist before you can plant or sow good seeds. Everything God has blessed us with is a seed in our hands. Our talents and gifts are seeds that when sown in faithfulness and diligence can create wonderful opportunities for us. Our money and resources are seeds that if sown generously, sacrificially, and sincerely can give us a bountiful harvest of financial and material blessings. The words that proceed from our lips are seeds that can produce death or life, sickness or health, curses or blessings, peace or turmoil. Our words are one of the most powerful seeds we have to create the kind of harvest we want. Our prayers are seeds that can grow to produce beautiful results like turning complex situations around, averting dangers, and placing us in the center of God’s will for our lives.
Without even realizing it, we sow every day. We sow in the morning, we sow at night. We sow when eyes are on us, we sow when no one is watching us. It’s either we are sowing sparingly or we are sowing generously, it’s either we are sowing actions that please our flesh or we are sowing actions that please the Spirit of God.
Just like in the natural realm, some seeds we sow spring up shortly after they are planted, some others take months or years before they sprout. Genesis 26:12 tells us that it was in the same year that Isaac sowed that he reaped; that he enjoyed the fruit of his labor. But for Abraham, at the age of 99, God sowed a word of prophecy into his life in Genesis 17:4 that he would be a father of many nations. This seed didn’t germinate until Abraham was 100 years old (Genesis 21:5). No wonder Galatians 6:9 encourages us not to be weary in doing good as some good seeds we sow in the field of life, take ages to bloom. For some seeds, it is our children or the next generation that reap the rewards of a kind deed or action we took, or benefit from an issue we tirelessly prayed about.
Sometimes the things we see happening in our lives are a reflection of the type of seeds we have sown into other people’s lives. When we are unkind, critical, and judgmental of others, we will likely see the same thing happen to us. Matthew 7:1-2 says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you”. We need to be careful what we sow into the lives of other people as our actions can boomerang.
There are some occasions when the last thing on earth we want to do is sow. It is easy to sow when the money in your account is permanently a 6 or 8-digit number. But when your account is in red, when just 3 numbers give you your account balance, sowing is the last thing you want to hear or think about. The interesting thing is that such times are actually the best times to sow whether in cash or kind. Psalm 126:5 says those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. In other words, those who sow when they are going through tough times, have little or no money or don’t even know when and where the next meal will come from, are opening the door to receive a blessing that will make their heart swell with joy. This was what happened to the widow of Zarephath. She sowed her very last meal into Elijah’s life. This was an uncalculated risk that could result in her and her son dying of starvation. She sowed in tears, she reaped in joy. She thought getting food to eat would be a big problem for her if she sowed, but food wasn’t an issue for her after she blessed Elijah with a meal. Her son was miraculously brought back to life because she was kind and considerate to a man of God. She sowed in tears, she sowed when it was not convenient to sow, she sowed when it didn’t make sense to sow, and reaped a harvest of two big miracles from God that made her joy full (1 Kings 17:7-24).
What are you sowing today? It can affect what happens to you tomorrow, it will determine the type of harvest you reap. Are you sowing generously or are you withholding? Are you sowing seeds of love and encouragement or are you sowing condemnation and harsh criticism? Are you sowing God’s word into your health, education, business, ministry, career, and family or are you just confessing the negative situations you see all around you? For as long as the earth remains, there will be seedtime and harvest time (Genesis 8:20-22). Don’t mix the good seeds God has blessed you with bad seeds. Pray for God to uproot out of your life every seed that will land you in a harvest of trouble; every seed that will make you reap nothing but shame, pain, and destruction. Pray for God to take out of your life all seeds that decrease instead of increase; all seeds that make your life worse instead of better.
Keep planting good seeds and deeds, water your seeds with God’s word and promises and God will cause them to grow into a bumper harvest of blessings and testimonies.
Tesh Njokanma is a lawyer by training whose heart is in writing. She is a prolific writer with over 15 years of experience as a Magazine Editor. She is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God with a prayer and teaching ministry. Tesh is married with children. She is based in Lagos, Nigeria.
