October is here! I always love this season, as it kicks off so many good events. My birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas; it’s my favorite time. It’s a season of change, seriously, it’s the autumn season of change. I’ve been through a huge season of change. This past week I got married to my best friend in the world. It was such a beautiful moment, one that I will always remember as the beginning of a brand new chapter in our lives. I’ll write about that in a few weeks, but one thing that I want to focus on is the season of fall. When I got married to Danielle, I didn’t meet her the week before and say, “hey, we should get like married or whatever.” It was the result of a cultivation of our relationship, we chose each other and invested everything into it. Our marriage is a result of the sowing we made into our relationship. That sowing directly affects the harvest that will come, and as a conclusion of these one-word topics I have been writing on, I want to focus on the harvest.

I think this is a pretty perfect topic to think about during fall. For many of us, we can see where we are at currently and wish we could be in a different place. This could be in your job, friendships, hobbies; anything that you wish could be better. Many times, we have this wishing mindset, but until we actually do something, nothing will change. I believe that God does want what’s best for you, but at the same time, he doesn’t want us to sit back and go through the motions, our faith needs to be active and trusting on God at the same time. When I think about the word harvest, I think about farming. Farmers will spend seasons making sure their soil is good, plant seeds, and spend months tending to the fields. Growth takes time and farmers know this better than anyone. The same is true in our lives, we need to make sure we are grounded in the word, gathering wisdom, and investing in our worship lifestyle to see true growth.

Harvest time comes after sowing.

This is so important. You can’t expect to be a doctor without studying. The same rings true for our own lives. We live in a time where we don’t wait for anything. We have endless hours of streaming and apps to have a random person deliver you food, we’ve gotten used to not having to invest time. When it comes to our relationship with Christ, we have to remember to invest. To be intentional with our relationship, sowing each day and preparing our hearts, so that when the day comes, God will be ready to place us into our next season. With all of this, we will get out what we put in. If a farmer chooses not to plant the seeds, he can’t expect the crop to grow.

2 Corinthians 9:6 sums this up well, saying, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” This past series I have been writing has been about this mentality. We need community to build us up, we need to make sure our foundation is set on the rock, we must submit to the sovereignty of our God, and we must choose to worship in all we do. Each of these components are ways we can sow, so that when the harvest comes, our hearts are ready for the crop.

The sowing sometimes takes longer than we want.

This for me is where the idea of harvest gets hard. For a long time, I have been sowing. For years I have felt this calling over my life. This desire deep down that God has given me, telling me that I have purpose. Yet for years, I have been working hard, trying to be the best I can be and walk in the ways God has for me, and I have felt marginalized and overlooked. It’s hard in moments like this to continue, asking myself, “what’s the point of all this work and seeing nothing from it?” Part of it is spiritual attack, because God has been using me to speak life into many students and adults, and part of it is a huge amount of trust. Trust is hard because I don’t see the end, so when jobs pass by or mentors walk away, the fear creeps in and tries to convince me that I will never see the harvest time.

In these moments, and these moments my wife has been so encouraging, I need to remove myself and remember where God has already brought me from. I was a kid who felt like a misfit that God chose to do his work and give me confidence. You need to remember that while the sowing is hard, God is faithful in the sowing and the harvest is plentiful.

As October rolls around, I am continually reminded of God’s faithfulness. In the midst of the fear, unknowns, and a long time of sowing; I can trust God because he has never given up on me. I’m sitting at my table with my wife on the couch, reminded of the harvest God has blessed me with. That scripture in 2 Corinthians 9 ends the chapter with a most amazing verse. Verse 15 says, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” God’s gift of freedom is so powerful, he gave it all for us. Because of the cross, we can live in a free relationship with the creator of all. That is the beauty of the harvest, we are reaping the blessing of God’s great love for us. For those of you in the season of sowing, don’t lose heart. Trust in the promise of the scripture and his inexpressible gift; the harvest is coming.

Prepare in the sowing.

-Joshua Thomas

 

I hope you have enjoyed these one-word prompts the past month. I typically do a post about fear in October, and I will start those this next month. I’ll share spiritual truths that I have learned from horror movies and this time, I am excited to share the time I was terrified at a haunted woods attraction. Subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss a post!