If this is you, let God’s word set your thinking straight. If you will take the time to read this and understand it, it will motivate you to keep trusting and obeying God and wait on the harvest.
Galatians 6:8 “The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good”
We have here a covenantal promise of God to his faithful children. This promise is one of the greatest motivations for doing good and not giving up. But, we must take a moment to understand this correctly. It is easily misunderstood.
This does not mean that God is a vending machine. We do not do well and then immediately receive blessings in such a way that we can easily see the direct connection. The soldiers of calvary believed Christ to be cursed, but they judged three days too soon. The friends of Job accused Job of sin, but they judged too soon. And, the man born blind was not blind because of his or his parent’s sin. His blindness turned out to be a blessing as his life became a greater opportunity for the glory of God. He has been seeing perfectly for two thousand years since that episode. Once again, many judged his seemingly cursed life too soon. Moreover, we cannot be so quick to right off pain as cursing and pleasure as blessing. Our dinner may be a blessing but God may be fattening us for the slaughter. Our pain may be a cursing but it may be the necessary pain inflicted upon us by the Divine Physical therapist. We must not judge too soon. We must in faith trust this covenantal promise. The blessings and the curses come “in due season” they do not automatically fall upon us. They are a God-ordered harvest not an automated and immediate mechanical response to an action.
However, this does not mean that there is no discernible pattern of covenantal cause and effect in this life. We must be able to receive feedback from the Lord in order to live well. And, the Bible explicitly states that certain behavior leads to certain effects. An idle and lazy man can generally expect poverty though he may win the lottery. So, while we can’t judge too soon we must not make the opposite mistake and determine that we can never know the unsearchable ways of God in this life. We do not need to be a prophet to discern God’s hand of blessing in this life for doing well. We must not jump to conclusions but we must not insist that nothing can be known.
The approach to right interpretation of events is here in our text. We must live our lives as farmers knowing how God’s covenantal blessings flow, working hard, being patient, doing good and expecting in due season the reward. It is this knowledge of a covenantal cause and effect that serves as motivation to do good in faith and hope and to not give up!
Take as one example the training of a child. To spare the rod is to spoil the child and to train up a child in the way he should go is a covenantal promise that sets your child on a godly trajectory. We cannot expect to receive back a self-controlled and godly child immediately upon administering discipline. Its not working God! I give up. God isn’t a vending machine, but, He is Lord of the harvest. Rather, we must obey God and rightly train up our child believing in faith that IN DUE SEASON we will reap the reward. This covenantal promise is our motivation to doing good and not growing weary.
Now, go and apply this to all of life: to work, to study, to tithing, to sabbath, to sexual faithfulness, to work, etc. and wait upon the Lord of the harvest.
