What Can Biblical Stories of Planting and Harvesting Teach Us about Faith?
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My cousin Katie is married to a man in ministry who loves to garden. He believes that gardening gives him a physical experience of the spiritual concepts revealed in the Bible. He goes through the daily faithfulness of tending to the crops and helping them grow as he reflects on the work of God.
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Proverbs 20:4 says, “Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest.”
If a person neglects the garden, then the garden withers and dies. If we negate our spiritual lives and growing in knowledge and – most importantly – love for the Lord, our spiritual lives will also suffer. God uses the lesson of farming to warn us of the dangers of laziness. May we not miss the opportunity to know God deeper and be used to share His love.
John 10:11 says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Jesus cares for us like a shepherd watches over his flock of sheep. He even describes in the parable of the lost sheep how the shepherd goes after the one lost sheep and leaves the ninety-nine. Then, he places the sheep on his shoulders and rejoices. A shepherd has deep compassion and care for his sheep. His job is to protect and provide for the sheep. Jesus teaches us that we need to be fully dependent on Him. He loves us each so much and laid down His life for us so we might eternally live.
Matthew 9:37-38 says, “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
Jesus teaches “the harvest is plentiful,” meaning that there is a lot of opportunity to share the gospel and many people waiting to hear the message. He says that the workers are few so we should pray for the Lord to send out more believers to reach those who are lost. This reminds us to share our faith boldly and excitedly and to love others well for the sake of Christ. There are many people who are just waiting to hear the good news of Jesus and we can help share that with them.
Whether you are an avid gardener or not, we are all spiritual gardeners in the kingdom of God. We reap what we sow, can have patience, we can trust God as our Provider, be careful of spiritual laziness, remember that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and know that there are a lot of ministry opportunities around us. May we go out from here remembering these lessons from the Bible and be motivated to fully rely on our great God.
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