Reaping and Sowing Teaches Through Feedback
The sages or Israel, and the Scriptures present wisdom as inherent to creation. They linked “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” with the book of Genesis, which translates to beginnings in Hebrew.
And in Proverbs 8, Lady Wisdom, the personification of wisdom, claims in a long talk “I was beside him, like a master workman” during the creation of the world.
The world and all it contains is a classroom, and chief among the principles is all of creation will answer man back according to his actions, for good or bad.
An evil man who seeks to entrap others, in fact,
“but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. “ Proverbs 1.18
A man who lives wisely with his wealth can also expect to reap what he sows:
"Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." Proverbs 3.9–10
The blessing a man brings to others will ultimately bless himself.
"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered." --Proverbs 11.25
Evil speech will trap you, those with righteous lips will find deliverance.
"An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him." Proverbs 12.13–14
A modern proverb says that “Your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting.”
Look at your world: What are the current results in your marriage, work, family, and habits?
They are feeding back to you all the time how well you are exercising wisdom.
Reaping and Sowing Provides Lopsided Multiplication
"Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13.8–9
One of the most stunning things about the rewards of reaping sowing is that if we’re sowing the right seeds in the right places, the returns can be stunning.
To plant a seed that produces three seeds (three times the return) would prove to be a very sound investment. If creation, endowed with wisdom, has anything to teach us, the returns are more like thirty, sixty, one-hundred times.
We’re putting too many limits on what God can do in our lives. We’re happy with a 20% return. God wants to bless us abundantly, he wants us to enjoy the blessings and have plenty to share with others.
If we truly understood how lopsided the multiplication was, we would give a lot more, myself included. My wife and I have been consciously giving more lately, and I admit, my lack of faith is obvious. But it has amazed lately me at how much more I’ve been seeing coming back to me.
Where have you been holding back in the sowing? What are you missing because of that?
You’re missing a lot more than just one hundred times returns:
Reaping and Sowing Transforms Environments
"And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4.30–32
If the lopsided returns aren’t enough, reaping and sowing is not just a multiplier, it’s a transformer.
My front yard has an enormous oak tree. It came from a single acorn. Not only has the sowing of that single acorn yielded thousands of acorns year after year, it’s completely change the environment of my yard.
Its shade cools my house and significantly in the summer. My daughter swooshes above the grass in a swing that hangs from a horizontal branch. We watch the woodpeckers scale its girth, and the squirrels bustle along its branches.
The oak tree hasn’t just made a quantity difference, it’s made a quality difference. A habit sown today can make a home tomorrow.
How could you enrich your enviroment and bless others if you were implementing the wisdom of Reaping and Sowing?
Reaping and Sowing: Hidden Factors Explain Why You Don’t Do It
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days” Ecclesiastes 11:1
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
I have a crisp memory of the first time I planted a tomato plant as a young married man. I looked at o the little plastic tag to see how long it would be before I enjoyed the fruit of the tomato vine.
55 days? I felt swindled.
One reason why we fail to reap and sow despite the outsized returns and qualitative benefits is the distance between the acts of sowing and reaping.
So long, in fact, that we secretly doubt that it really “works.”
We also don’t like putting that seed in the ground. We’ll never see it again in its current form. And then we believe the lie, that somehow we’ve lost, we’ve been swindled.
I’ll tell you how to destroy this lie:
Reaping and Sowing with The Hidden Partner
The world says “Karma” ensures reaping and sowing. Or that it is some “law of the universe.”
It’s a lot more personal than that:
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed. Proverbs 19:17
I spent over five years studying the wisdom literature. As often as reaping and sowing appears repeatedly, the behind the scenes secret is that the Lord himself makes reaping and sowing work.
It’s not a principle, it’s a Person.
God sees what’s done in secret. Yes, sometimes it feels like you are casting your bread on the waters. But I want to encourage you that in a metaphysical, real sense God is overseeing the process of reaping and sowing in your life.
Sometimes the people or things you invest in may not directly yield the fruit you were looking for. But God himself sees, knows, and acts on our behalf.
Reaping and sowing is not just some principle to live by. It’s a partnership to engage in. And when you engage in that kind of Partner, you can’t lose.
I specialize in helping people reclaim their power and implement lost wisdom in their lives. If you're looking to get your life back on track, contact me. I have a coaching spot open right now.