Do you have a garden? I would love to have one, however; my dog feels it is her responsibility to remove any foreign looking plant from our yard as if she were protecting us from something. She isn’t partial to flowering plant or non-flowering plant. She likes to dig them all up. As a result, any hope of a garden is lost.
My parents have a wonderful garden each year. They plant rows of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers. Each spring they work hard to prepare the ground, plant the garden and pull the weeds. The results of their hard work begin coming in early summer and supply them with bounty all summer long. When I go home, I try to load up on all of the fresh produce. There’s just something about knowing the hands who worked to grow the food that makes it taste better. You know the loving care that went into nurturing the crops until they were ready to harvest.
Never once does my dad go to the garden to pick peppers and expect to find corn. He knows what to expect because he prepared for peppers, he planted peppers, he watered peppers, and he knows he will harvest peppers.
Micah 7:7 says “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” We can expect the Lord to show up in our life and intervene when we need Him if we have taken the time to develop a relationship with Him. If we have entered into a relationship with Jesus [Romans 10:9]; nurtured the relationship by investing time with Him daily [Mark 1:35] becoming one with Him [John 17:11], we can expect the Lord will hear us and respond accordingly [Jeremiah 33:3].
Hosea 10:12 challenges us to “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” When we sow into a relationship with the Lord, we reap all of His goodness. We reap an intimacy that comes only through the investment of time together.
Ask yourself what kind of relationship you want with the Father and then begin to sow into it. It is the only way to reap what you desire. We are promised in Galatians 6:7 we reap what we sow. Begin planting today.