THE PROMISE IS IN THE SEED...

My garden is riotous right now! It is becoming overgrown and is producing it's little heart out... popping out so many tomatoes I can barely keep up with it's happy production!

I'm always so impressed with the ways of my garden! It's so much more than veggies and flowers and weeds... lots of weeds!

My garden is a virtual classroom of spiritual lessons...

Lettuce is a real staple in the garden. Planting the seeds early in April gives us a delicious harvest from May till late in June. But here is the great thing about lettuce... it can be planted in August for a wonderful fall harvest... producing tender, scrumptious leaves until frost. 

I find great joy in taking my salad bowl right out to the garden and filling it with all veggie deliciousness. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson did that too? It is said that he would walk his magnificent south-sloped garden with a big salad bowl in hand, filling it with the makings of his dinner. I think that is very romantic... so, taking a lesson from Mr. Jefferson, I do the same! 

This week I'll be in the garden making shallow furloughs in the soil... planting those tiny tiny black seeds into the warm welcoming earth. In just about a week little tufts of green will appear on the top of the brown earth. Such a promising sight of the lettuce harvest to come.

Think of this...those tiny black seeds hold the promise of a harvest! It is such a miracle to me!

Those small dots-of-a-seed hold an amazing and practical spiritual truth...

THE PROMISE IS IN THE SEED!

A seed holds it's harvest within itself! Planting that seed produces a specific harvest.

A lettuce seed only produces lettuce.... a pepper seed only produces peppers... a tomato seed only produces... you got it, tomatoes. What we plant... we will harvest!

God uses the world He created to speak truth into our lives... how marvelous if we only look around to see it!

Our "seeds" of thoughts and deeds are producers too... just like those tiny lettuce seeds! Our thoughts and deeds create big harvests in our lives... for good and bad!

God says,

DO NOT BE DECEIVED, GOD IS NOT MOCKED; FOR WHATEVER A MAN SOWS THIS HE WILL ALSO REAP.

Galatians 6:7

Here is what God is saying (if I may humbly paraphrase the Almighty)

...don't delude yourself! Don't count on your own guess at understanding truth... count on God's truth and His understanding... don't go astray...

God will not be sneered at! His laws and precept will not be put aside for man's flawed understanding!

Know this for certain... what a person sows into his or her life... that and ONLY THAT... is what they will have as a harvest!

Here is exactly how we know exactly what our harvest will be...

LOOK AT THE SEED!!! 

It contains the promise of the harvest!

THE PROMISE IS IN THE SEED!

This works every time!!!!

I would not plant thistle seeds and expect to have a garden filled with zinnias! If I did I would be deceiving myself. If I want zinnias... I plant zinnia seed!

If I want clean laundry... then I plant the seed of  "doing laundry" in my life.   Planting the seed of "watching tv" does not produce clean laundry.

If I want a life of holiness and a close relationship with God I plant those "seeds"  that give me that beautiful harvest.

Seeds of bible study, prayer, submission to God's will, spending quiet time with God, going to and being active in a good church.... seeds that are of the Spirit!

This is such an easy but very very BIG universal truth! 

If we look at the harvests we produce in our lives... it is easy to see what seeds we have planted!!!

So, it is just as easy to imagine the harvest we WANT in our lives and then go and plant those... and only those seeds!

What a simple, but life changing truth!  A very big life lesson from the garden! Only our great God could show us a truth so awesome and  important from something as simple as seeds!

August is always a tough time for me in the garden! The garden is pumping out veggies... and lots of weeds! The heat and humidity keep me from wanting to tend it. I want the harvest... just not the hot sweaty work that goes along with it!  

I love the idea of the garden in May... when the work new and easy and fun... but not so much in August when just keeping up is exhausting and hot and hard and the harvest is looming big! But isn't that the whole reason for planting the garden and loving the idea of it? Fickle me! 

Today as I write this, I'm reevaluating my spiritual and practical life harvest!

It seems that it is August in my life right now!

 I'm become a little lazy recently...

I'm reaping the harvest of some wrong seed planting! Of seed that has blown into my life and taken root... seed that needs to be weeded out! 

I need be taking a closer and harder look at the promised harvest within each seed I plant in my life... good seed for a good harvest.

Now here's my challenge for you... 

LOOK AT YOUR SEED!

THINK ABOUT YOUR HARVEST!

PLANT FOR THE PROMISE!

I'll be writhing a 4 part series about the Universal truths of Sowing and Reaping. I hope you will follow along!