This past week my husband and I have been working in the yard, planting vegetable seeds, pulling out overgrown flowers, and planting dog friendly flowers. Today my greenhouse will be delivered for my husband to put together. All this has me thinking about the scripture, “You reap what you sow.”

This first scripture begins with a curious statement about God not being mocked. We don’t often hear that word and it took me a minute to see how it applied to the rest of the verse.

God will never be mocked! For what you plant will always be the very thing you harvest. The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption. If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit.

And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!

Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭7‬-‭9‬ ‭TPT

I chose The Passion Translation because of how it answered my curiosity about God being mocked. “For what you plant will always be the very thing you harvest.” The word “always” informs us that God is true and just, there is no surprise or deception in His nature. There is order and predictability. When we plant a carrot seed, we will harvest a carrot not a rutabaga. (I had my scriptures picked out but thinking about bunnies and deer eating from my garden has me adding another passage. I’ll put that at the end. 😁)

So these next two passages address the kinds of sowing/planting we can do.

I said, “Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.”

But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies— trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe.

Hosea‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT

Seeds of righteousness produce love, whereas seeds of wickedness produce sin. Righteousness can sound haughty as in self-righteous, but in God’s economy it means acting in line with God’s character, or doing the right thing. The second half of this passage reflects more of the self-righteous person, the one who depends on his own way of doing things. The one who eats the fruit of lies, is the one influenced by the father of lies, Satan, deceptively coerced to follow their own desires.

This next one is about generosity. The fruit of generosity is bounty.

Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. As the Scriptures say,

“They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

2 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT

This is counterintuitive to our natural mind. Giving away resources is subtraction. Right? How many Christians struggle to give cheerfully when they are living paycheck to paycheck? But generosity can be considered a righteous seed when God is in the midst of it. And as we know God is not to be mocked, giving generously is multiplication in His kingdom, not subtraction.

So here is my bonus scripture:

“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

“Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

“The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

“The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

“The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭3‬b-‭8‬, ‭18‬-‭23‬ ‭MSG

We know sowing the Word is sowing a righteous seed. In all these instances the sower keeps sowing the seed knowing it can produce “a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.” The lesson we learn here is to keep planting, keep doing good things, even when we don’t see the results in the lives of those on the receiving end.

I will keep sowing.

Grace & Peace,

Sandy

Image from Canva