Do you know what the Lord told me this morning? He told me to take the seed out of my pockets. What good will it do to have pockets full of seed? Then He reminded me how a beloved friend sent me a card just days ago with a whole bunch of seeds. No, not seeds for carrots and squash and such. God seeds! And sure, her generous donation to Walk by Faith Ministry was abundant seed. But the most beautiful seed in her card were all the encouraging words she sowed into my heart. She even wrote about how I’m a seed sower. Little did she know God was about to convict me that it’s high time for me to stop walking around with pockets full of seed. Can you imagine if farmers never planted their seeds? How naked the fields would be at harvest time!
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God gives us all sorts of seeds, doesn’t He? He gives us His Word, most importantly. And He gives the Body of Christ lots of different kinds of God seeds – or gifts – to build up His Kingdom. My pockets are loaded with God seeds.
I study His Word daily, so I have plenty of Bible seeds to sow into people’s hearts. Scripture seeds! And as if that’s not enough, He gives me so much more. He gives me love seeds, and encouragement seeds, and kindness seeds, and giving seeds, and hope seeds, and faith seeds, and peace seeds, and unity seeds, and reconciliation seeds, and forgiveness seeds, and mercy seeds, and lots more kind of seeds.
Then He gives me writing seeds because He has gifted me in writing. And He gives me preaching seeds because He has called me to preach. He gives me compassion seeds to take care of the 18 mostly special needs and senior dogs in the ministry’s care. He gives me listening seeds to listen to people, and speaking seeds to say just the right words to people. Oh, how God fills my pockets with seeds when I sit down and think about it.
Some of the seeds I use on a pretty regular basis. Some of the seeds I forget to use because I forget I have them. Some of the seeds I struggle to use because the sin of my flesh – like pride or worry – gets in the way. Some of the seeds I find myself refusing to take out of my pockets because I am afraid of how the world will respond. Who likes rejection, and hurt, and judgment, and criticism, and unkindness from others?
Sometimes, like this morning, I discover my pockets are about to burst at their seams with seeds because I am neglecting to use what God has given me. Like writing. I tell God I don’t like all the rejection that comes sometimes when I use the seeds He gives me. He doesn’t promise me that rejection won’t come again. He promises I can count on plenty more rejection so long as I sow the seeds He gives me. Then He points His big God finger at my about-to-burst pockets and lovingly but sternly tells me that He didn’t give me seeds to become a hoarder. He gave me seeds to sow them.
I never thought of myself as a farmer, but I guess I am. But farmers don’t walk around with pockets stuffed with seeds and empty fields, do they? Farmers do something with their seeds. They plow the ground and plant them, don’t they? So God reminds me seed sowers have a job to do. But He doesn’t just take that big God finger and wag His God finger at my pockets. He takes that God heart of His and wraps me in His loving arms. He tells me He knows I’m hurting. He reassures me He knows I’m walking through some challenges. He comforts me with merciful words and endless forgiveness, and most of all He tells me in all His manifold ways that He loves me.
Then He takes my hand in His, reaches our hands together down into my pockets, fills up our hands together with some of the seeds He’s given me, pulls our hands out of my pocket, and proceeds to reach out our hands together to the world to plant our seeds. And then I see, with tears in my eyes even as I write these words. His strength is truly perfected in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). His love is perfected where mine falls ever short. His grace is perfected where I am in such desperate need of it.
He isn’t asking me to do something with my seed-filled pockets all by myself. He is the master seed sower, isn’t He? So He takes my hand, and heart, in His, and together we begin once more to use the seeds He gives me for the coming harvest. And just when I start to think but what happens when we use up all the seeds in my pockets that are so jammed full right now, everything falls into place in my mind. He doesn’t just help me to sow seed. He gives seed to the sower. Then together we sow…….
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater ; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth ; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:8-11 NASB
“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 NASB
Please visit Walk by Faith Ministry at https://www.walkbyfaithministry.com.
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