Gardening

There’s a mistake we tend to make when we think about getting someone saved with the good news. We only think about the harvest—that salvation moment—when there’s an entire gardening process that’s involved first. We cannot wish a garden into existence, it takes planting seeds, caring for the garden, time and patience. When we are trying to bring someone to Jesus we may forget about the planting and sowing (sharing the gospel) and watering (treating someone with kindness and love and praying for them) because they don’t seem as exciting as the harvesting (he or she accepting Jesus and salvation).

One of my favorite parables from Jesus is in the book of Mathew: “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13:3-8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Kimberly Henderson from Proverbs 31 Ministries describes this well in her study of Colossians:

Faith, rightly placed in Christ, produces a good and beautiful harvest in the lives of believers. We, too, can be the kind of people Paul would give thanks for - a people of confident faith, unwavering hope and unexpected love. This doesn't mean faking or forcing our growth, but it does mean continually abiding in Christ and carefully cultivating wisdom, love and Truth in our hearts.

The dailiness of placing our hope and trust in Jesus isn't anything the world typically applauds. But that dailiness produces good fruit. Fruit that people will give thanks for. Fruit that will nourish, encourage and leave others hungry for more of Christ.