Each week I meet with people seeking counsel. Some are planning a wedding and want premarital guidance. Others come with a crumbling marriage in their hands. Some struggle with finances. Some with addiction.
In almost all of the situations, the Scripture I turn to is Galatians 6:7-9.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
How is this message about sowing and reaping relevant? Well, let’s walk through it and consider two farmers.
First, there’s the good farmer. On the first day of spring, he gets out in his field, preparing, tilling, pulling out rock and putting in fertilizer. He takes readings of the soil. He makes sure he is rotating fields. Then, he puts in the seed with care and time. In the growing season, you’ll find him watering, weeding — even in the middle of the heat of summer. At the end of the season, he's almost certainly going to have a harvest.
Contrast that with the lazy farmer. He waits to begin work, then rushes to get his seeds in the soil. In the heat of summer, he spends time in the shade, laughing with friends. Then when the harvest is due, he has nothing to show. Hard stuff comes and it stresses every part of him. He finds himself begging, borrowing and stealing to get through winter. Some lazy farmers lose everything.
Let’s think about that in terms of marriage.
Consider a couple just starting out. If they start sowing to the Spirit in the early years of marriage, they’re going to reap a fruitful harvest 15 years down the road. But if they come into marriage sowing to the flesh, basically living for themselves, doing what feels good to each of them, they’ll also reap a harvest. But it will be a painful one.
This practical lesson shows us that God will not be mocked. We can’t go about our lives for ourselves and expect to reap His blessings. This applies to relationships, finances, parenting, sexual purity and the list goes on.
A man reaps what he sows.
So what hope is there for the lazy farmer?
Jesus. He is our redemption. He is the reason we can begin again and move toward a harvest.
Still, there are natural consequences for sowing to the flesh.
If the lazy farmer decides in the autumn, when his harvest is barren, that he wants to change, it will be at least a year before he can reap again. He will have to make it through the cold winter. He will have to labor in the spring and summer — even more so because his fields are fallow — to bring a harvest. And his harvest won’t look like his neighbor’s, the good farmer’s. Because the good farmer has spent years working his land.
This is a hard teaching.
In our instant gratification world, we want to say, “I’m going to change” and get instant results. We want to tell our wife that we’re sorry for our infidelity and have her forgive us. We want to go to our banker and have our loans forgiven.
But we have to walk out the winter. We have to work through the spring to unlearn old habits. We have to build up callouses in the summer.
We need to get in community and ask those good farmers to come alongside us and help us to plow up our fallow fields. We need their expertise to keep going on the hard days.
That’s why this passage encourages us not to grow weary in doing good — even when we’re tired and sweaty and sore.
There are fields to sow. Do not give up, and in the proper time you will reap a harvest.