Encouragement 10-26-04

 

October 26, 2004
Encouragement for Today

The Pumpkin Patch Harvest
Sharon Glasgow, Speaker on Proverbs 31 Speaker Team

Key Verse: 

"Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves."  Luke 10:2 (NKJ)

Devotion: 

I love pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, bales of hay and corn stalks tied together in the fall. Last spring, I planned ahead, buying packages of pumpkins seeds.  I proudly planted my pumpkin patch and, using the dates on the seed package, estimated I should be overflowing with pumpkins just in time for October.  Over the next few months, I watched my pumpkin patch, but nothing happened.  I never saw the first pumpkin vine or leaf.  My pumpkin patch was empty and after all of my planning and planting was disappointed to say the least.  I couldn't understand what had happened.  I knew that I had planted them at the proper time, rains were good that summer and the ground was fertilized.  Well, I gave up on growing pumpkins this year.  Why try when I was such a failure at growing them last year?

Two weeks ago, I was taking a Sunday walk around the barn and saw a huge orange thing peeking out from among the wild flowers.  I walked over to it and to my amazement found a big pumpkin.  In fact, it was so big; I couldn't budge it or even put my arms around it! It is one of those state fair size pumpkins! Instantly I knew this was a pumpkin grown from my planting the previous year. I found a few more, but none as big as the big one!

I was so excited! I sat down in my pumpkin patch with my big pumpkin and said, "What happened to you last year, didn't I give you everything you needed to grow?  As the beautiful wild flowers brushed against me, I felt overwhelmingly blessed by this unexpected harvest! I could sense God speaking to my heart.  "Sharon, you don't always see the harvest of your labor in your expected time schedule.  Don't stop planting when you don't see growth.  Plant!  And in due time you will harvest what you have sown."
 
After visiting with the pumpkin and God, I came in the house to find an email sent that very hour from a young man I had taught in Sunday school ten years earlier.  He was writing to me from Africa.  

Dear Mrs. Glasgow thank you for introducing me to the Lord of my life, Jesus Christ.  I am helping lead the lost to Him in Africa.  Please pray for me.

I was so touched, a seed planted so long ago, and now to see the harvest! I quickly jotted some notes to remember what God had just taught me in the pumpkin patch and stuffed the paper in my purse. Last night, as I waited to pick up my children from choir, a young girl came running up to my car.  She said, "Mrs. Glasgow, pray for my mom. She doesn't know the Lord and is so lonely."  I quickly reached for a piece of paper in my purse on which to write her phone number.  The girl left.  I flipped the paper over to find the words I had written earlier, "Plant the seeds Sharon, God will do the rest." Planting seeds can be a phone call to a lost woman in need of a Savior, teaching a Sunday school class or giving a bible to your next-door neighbor.  Don't worry about the harvest.  It will come in due time.  Just keep planting!

My prayer for today:

Lord, help me to be faithful to tell others about you.  Help me to minister to those you put in my path. Then please help me to follow through with the planting.  I leave the harvest to you.

Application steps:

Everyday is a perfect day to plant seeds.

You don't have to be perfect before God uses you to sow!

Keep your spiritual eyes open.

God wants you to plant seeds.  The Holy Spirit does the rest.

Don't take credit or blame yourself with the success of the seeds.

Always pray for the seeds you have sown. They will bring glory to God!

Reflection points:

Write down people in your life who do not know Jesus.  Pray for them everyday and ask God to give you opportunities to share the Word of Truth. Be obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading in your life.

Power verse:

"And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"  Romans 10:14 NKJ

Additional resources:

Radically Obedient, Radically Blessed by Lysa TerKeurst
http://www.gospelcom.net/p31/resources/radical.html

Becoming a Woman Who Listens to God by Sharon Jaynes
http://www.gospelcom.net/p31/resources/womanlistens.html