Over the last two or three months, I’ve had reason to think about that.
And how easily we forget it. Or purposefully ignore it. Even when we know it. And maybe even believe it.
Oh the foolishness (stupidity, if you will) of planting something that will bring us a heart-breaking harvest later!
• contempt and scorn
• mockery and disrespect
• deceit and hypocrisy
• pride and cockiness
• ungodliness and impurity
• wrong example and unwise counsel
So stop and think and analyze and look to the future.
(Yes, this applies to you, believe it or not!)
Elsewhere you can find more I wrote on this subject: here and here.
Well, I ask you right now — do you want to harvest what you planted earlier today?
If not, maybe it’s too late. (Though it certainly isn’t too late to confess and abandon the wrong planting.)
And for sure it isn’t too late to start planting something better — something that you can look forward to harvesting.
For myself, my harvesting continues to this very day. Too much of it is quite wretched. (Yes, I’ve been in some kind of a downer of late.)
Now, having written all that, I urge you to hope! You reap what you sow works for the good harvests just as well as it does for the bad ones.
Anyway, eventually it dawned on me that this might make an interesting search term: you reap what you sow.
So I tried it and among the top 10 (of 208,000) Web-search results are these:
| What You Do Comes Back To You
The words “What you do comes back to you” are an excellent paraphrase of the Biblical truth, “You reap what you sow.” You plant the seeds (sow), and then later you gather the resulting harvest (reap). The harvest that you reap depends on the kind of seeds you sow. If you sow corn, you will not reap olives. 1 Way Only–You Reap What You Sow …what you sow in life has a direct relationship to what you’ll receive in your life. In other words, your actions all have consequences. Good actions result in good consequences, and bad actions result in bad consequences. …But don’t ever be fooled into thinking that your actions don’t have consequences. Don’t think you can get away with bad choices even if you don’t seem to get caught. Remember verse seven tells us that God cannot be mocked. He sees it all. You reap what you sow. Another so-called exception to the rule is the belief that time alters the reap-and-sow principle. That is, if the penalty or reward for an act doesn’t come quickly, it isn’t coming at all, and hence the law of cause and effect is broken. |
And among the top 10 (of about 35) news-search results are:
| Frost Illustrated: Morality in Media leader offers explanation for mass killings
“There is a saying, ‘You reap what you sow,’ and the American people are reaping what the entertainment media have sowed and we have bought for more than forty years.” allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Govt Distributes 535 Ploughs to Farmers “Let us take heed of the saying ‘you reap what you sow’ and make use of the ploughs given to you today. Sow the seed that will give us a bumper harvest,” he said. Moultrie Observer – Rants and Raves for Dec 11 “If we are not careful, nobody will want to come here to coach. No true support, no participation, and we expect to win. After what happened to Coach Singletary, you reap what you sow boys! Football is not king anymore! Queen at best! |
And among the top 10 (of about 14,440) blog-search results are:
| Everyday Woman Radio Show with Vicki Hinze: Stealing Religion
But first it’ll be a long look into a harsh mirror in which nothing is hidden and all that is true is exposed. Then the thief will learn the penalty of his/her actions, and then s/he will suffer the utmost consequences. Because in the very symbols stolen are promises that remain intact: you reap what you sow. And from that, the thief cannot hide. I wonder. When the thief sows, feels the full weight of the consequences of his/her actions, how will s/he feel about stealing then? Because the truth is, the thief(s) might have stolen and damaged and destroyed that family’s property. But s/he did far more lasting damage to him/herself. The kind self-inflicted that requires far more than mere repayment to be satisfied. It requires forgiveness, and that requires divine grace. It is said that we reap what we sow. In fact, it could be argued that even the most fertile soil throughout the world is barren unless time and effort is expended to take seeds and have them properly planted, cultivated and nurtured. |