Don’t Neglect Sowing and Reaping in These 4 Aspects of Life

I recently attended a wedding and there were three couples in attendance who had been married for a total of 108 years. I believe they were 33, 37, and 38 years respectively. When you think about this type of longevity in marriage, there is one thing that keeps this working. They are sowing some good seeds.

For a marital relationship to work, or any relationship, you have to sow into it. You have to make a decision to put some things into that relationship that will give it the opportunity to reap a harvest on the other end. In other words, relationships don’t happen by accident, they happen by intention. That is the principle of sowing and reaping.

Here is the good news, this principle is so ingrained that the Bible says God will not be mocked. In other words, if you sow the right things into your relationships, you will reap the right things out of it, because God cannot be mocked. If you look at your family, friends, work, and any other place where you have relationships, if you don’t like where they are, there is a good possibility that the problem is not what you are getting out of it, but what you are putting into it.

2. Education

There are some people in life who can just show up and perform well on any exam they take. Those people are rare and are definitely not the norm. For the rest of us, education is the place where you learn with the goal of applying what you learn in real life someday.

If there is ever a place where people need to focus on what they are putting in, this is definitely one area. What you know is a direct result of what you put in. This does not just apply in a secular construct but in a spiritual one as well. I cannot tell you how many people I have seen and heard talk about how they want to draw closer to God and know more about him, but they never take the time to open their Bible. If you don’t take time to read the Bible, you will never know more about God because it violates the principle of sowing and reaping.

Regardless of what level or place of education you are striving for, whether it is secular or spiritual, you must sow into it. If you don’t do that then don’t expect great results because God will not be mocked.

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One area that people often fall off the cliff with this principle is in their careers. By careers I mean your job, your own business if you have one, your side hustle if you have one of those as well. Basically, anything that you do to earn a living and support yourself and your family. There is only one way to grow a business or advance in a job or career. You must sow into it.

Sowing could mean putting in better quality time, being more focused when you are working, taking on new challenges, being easy to work with, approaching work with the right mindset and much more. In my former life I used to talk to a lot of high school kids about their career goals and ambitions. Some of those conversations were with inner city youth and they would share their dreams and aspirations with me. I remember one teenager who said he wanted to play in the NFL. There is nothing wrong with this dream, until I asked him a few questions. I asked him are you playing on your school’s team? Are you working out daily? Have you attended any football camps? His answer to all these questions was no. Needless to say you know where his football dream ended up.

Too often we take this approach with our careers. We don’t put in the necessary effort (sowing) and then we complain about the results we are getting (reaping). Remember the principle, God cannot be mocked. God rewards you in relationship to the effort that you put into the work. A great example of this was Daniel and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We recognize Daniel as a great prophet because he was, but do you realize he worked in a secular environment? Yet his work ethic was superior and on a level of excellence that required everyone to take notice. Look at what the scriptures say about these men.

“To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom” (Daniel 1:17-20).

While it is true that God gave them knowledge and understanding, it was up to them to apply it at a level that was worthy of what they had received. You and I are responsible for doing the same things in the careers that God has placed us in.

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The last one I want to talk about is ministry. There is one advantage we have in ministry – in fact this advantage really applies to all of these – and that is the power of prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit. While this is a huge blessing because God can make up for all of our shortcomings, this can also make people lazy because they think they don’t have to prepare and just let the Holy Spirit work. However, remember the principle: God will not be mocked.

I heard a preacher say this about preparation and working in ministry: You must pray as if work has nothing to do with it and you must work as if prayer has nothing to do with it.

Obviously, we know both of these work together, but there is truth in this quote that often happens in ministry and in life. We often don’t prepare enough, and we often don’t pray enough. Is there any wonder we get the results we get? (Remember God will not be mocked). Giving God your best in ministry is not just what you do when you are engaged in the ministry work, but what you do when you are not that prepares you for that. If you think about Jesus, the reason he was able to be so effective in ministry (aside from the fact that he was God) is because he used the time out of the spotlight away from public ministry to strengthen himself to be ready for when he had to go back into it. He modeled perfectly for us this principle of sowing and reaping.

This principle of sowing and reaping applies to every area of your life along with every goal, dream, desire, or aspiration you have. Let’s make sure we are approaching them with the right mindset, remembering that God will not be mocked. You will reap the right harvest when you sow the right seed. Let’s focus on putting in the right things and watch as God produces the harvest.

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