"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." Galatians 6:7-8

Don’t you just love the way God explains spiritual principles by using the simplest illustrations that we all readily understand? The law of sowing and reaping assures us that our harvest lies in the power of what we sow. Every farmer knows that if he sows wheat he will not harvest corn. And if he sows one acre his harvest will not be two acres.

When we examine the fruits of our life we are seeing the end result of the seeds we have sown,-"But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own." (1 Cor.15) In other words, each seed can only reproduce after it’s own kind. God has created every seed and has implanted the information to replicate itself.

 

According to our text, to plant one kind of seed and expect a different kind of harvest is mocking God. The person who sows patience, mercy, kindness, love and forgiveness will reap a bountiful harvest of those things, especially in the world to come. If you want to be loved and respected then sow love and respect toward others and you will reap the same. The ground must be prepared, the seed sown, and the plants attended and protected. If you want to see the worst enemy of your desired harvest - take a good look in the mirror.

 

One day a lady in my congregation came to my office to counsel with my wife and I. She was feeling that the other ladies in the Church were not very close to her and she was upset about it. She had long suffered from an inferiority complex and tended to read more into the actions of others than was really there.

 I shared with her my observations and shed light on some blind spots that she was unaware of. She was desperate for a close Church friend and had a tendency to quickly latch onto any new person who started attending. The problem was, she had a habit of complaining, finding fault and self-pity which were the last things a new babe in Christ needs to be subjected to because it can easily cause them to stumble.

 In our counseling we learned that she hadn’t realized what she had been doing, but most everyone else in the Church had and as a result some constantly tried to monitor the situation. She had been sowing weeds which others were trying to snatch up before they took root in the new convert. After this woman came to see and understand she repented and began to sow seeds that produced a whole harvest of Church friends for her.

 

One of our men in the Church felt like the other men were not treating him with the proper respect. I pointed out that they were only reacting to his fruits and though they loved him, they had lost a degree of respect for him. He had distanced himself from the Church in a number of ways - he was always 15 to 40 minutes late for services - often got up a couple of times during services - and went along with his wife when she was in a wrong attitude. He didn’t feel the same as her but just went along to get along. I told him that if he didn’t like his harvest to change the seeds he had been planting. He did, and his fellowship with his brothers was restored. "For whatever a man sows, this he will reap."