…Out to Sow…

September 10

“A sower went out to sow…” (Matthew 13:4)

I want to thank all of you who contacted me, taking the time to let me know what a blessing these blog posts have been to you. You can never know just how powerful an encouraging note can be!

I especially wanted to thank my friend Keith @ Stand Tall for Christ (great site!) for bringing up such a valid point… and one that I can so easily forget.

What we do, whenever we attempt anything for God, is just investing in people. And sometimes (maybe often) we are investing in someone that we don’t even know. Maybe they are just cruising along one day and stumble on our words posted on a site – and those words are instrumental in changing their lives.

As is central to the parable of the seed and the sower, you never know when what you cast will find a ready and willing soil. The sower’s role is to just toss the seed.

In a very real sense, we are sowing into the miraculous. It is a miracle when the word of God finds a home in someone’s heart – and it is a miracle when those hearts come alive to Jesus! (Salvation is a resurrection miracle!). But, for each of us, we must realize that WE do not control any of the outcome. We are not the miracle workers. He is. And our part is just to play a role (however tiny) in the miracles that He desires to do.

When we get discouraged. When we can only see the drudgery of our lives. When our lives (and our time) just seem like a waste – it is so easy to forget that we are not in this for ourselves. We are planters, waterers, cultivators… it is GOD Who is committed to bringing the results. That is HIS role.

As we are often discovering… we have no control over God (though, in our honest moments, we probably wish we could). But it is HIS work we are investing in… and our only role is just to be faithful with the talent and gifts we have received.

Sow the Word. Water it with grace. Cultivate it with kindness and encouragement. All the rest is God’s work. God’s results.

I forget that sometimes. In truth, I think we all do.

If I can be honest (and why shouldn’t I be?) I often struggle with doubt. Insecurity. Whether anything I do really matters.

And when you add God to that mix, our perception of Him can get a little (or a lot!) distorted. We end up in dark places. Frustrated. Tired. Sometimes angry. Mostly at God. When none of it is His fault.

We have just lost sight of the one fact that keeps us grounded. We are but dust. But He has chosen to redeem that dust… and has personally called us to serve Him with the gifts and talents He has given us.

He has not redeemed us for our success. Our recognition. Our satisfaction. Our glory. (Even) our happiness.

He has redeemed us so that He can work through us – in ways that only He can do.

And so much of the time… we will never see (this side of heaven) how much work He has done through us…

All that to say this… I have concluded that I just need to keep sowing the seeds God has given me – until He tells me to do something else.

It is time to pick up that seed bag (once again) and head “out to sow…”

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