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INS:Sowing and reaping by Bill MacDonald
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him]." Psalm 126:5-6
In Psalm 126 the children of Israel are reminiscing about their
return to the land after their captivity in Babylon. It had been as
if they were in a dream world, filled with laughter and singing.
Even their pagan neighbors had commented on the great things the
Lord had done for His people.
Now that they were back in their own land, they had to start
planting crops. But this posed a problem. They had brought back
only a limited amount of grain with them. They could use it as food
now; after all, there were no crops in the field for them to
harvest. Or they could use it as seed, sowing it in the ground with
the hope of an abundant harvest in days to come. If they decided
to use most of it as seed, that meant that they would have to live
frugally and sacrificially until harvest time. They decided on the
latter course.
As the farmer went out into his fields, dipped his hand into the
seed, and scattered it broadcast on the plowed land, he would shed
tears at the thought of the privations he and his family would have
to endure until the time of harvest.
But later when the fields teemed with golden grain, his tears would
be turned to joy as he brought the ripened sheaves back to the barn.
All the sacrifices his household had made would be richly rewarded.
We can think of this in connection with our own stewardship of
material things. The Lord entrusts each of us with a limited
amount of money. We can spend it in self-indulgence, buying up
whatever our hearts desire. Or by living sacrificially we can
invest it in the work of the Lord - in foreign missions, in
Christian literature, in Gospel radio broadcasts, in the local
church and in many other forms of evangelistic activity. In that
case it will mean choosing a modest standard of living so that
everything above essentials will go into the work of the Lord. It
will mean living on a restricted budget so that souls will not
perish for want of the Gospel.
But any such sacrifices will not be worth mentioning when the time
of harvest comes, when we will see men and women in heaven as a
result of our sacrificial living. One person saved from hell to
become a worshiper of the Lamb of God for all eternity is worth any
sacrifice we can make now.
From ONE DAY AT A TIME by Bill MacDonald.