sober sowing
Patti and I just returned from Romania. The land and people are beautiful, but one of the small “loves” we have there is that traditionally the breakfast served includes fresh grown tomatoes. There is usually also fresh cucumbers, peppers, onions included, but something from a garden somewhere is always present. Would you hand me the salt and pepper please?
I woke up this morning thinking that a garden doesn’t actually need the fruit it produces. It just does its thing. We plant and it produces. Fairly simple concept. It doesn’t get caught up in how we arrange the seed, till the soil or make demands about fertilizer or water amounts. It just does what it does contingent upon the watch-care of the gardener. In other words, THE GARDENER (that would be me and you) need the fruit and produce…not the garden itself.
Webster defines garden as: (a piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruits, or vegetables). In the context of our spiritual lives, the church can be our garden. I’ve said it a thousand times, “the people need to give more than the church needs money”. The people need to sow, the people need to tend to the weeds, the people need to water what it has planted. Too often we are hungry for God’s power, God’s provision, God’s protection, God’s blessing yet we are not willing to make “sowing” investments that put us in the arena of receiving a blessing. Of course, the garden requires nothing of you. It places no demands whatsoever. But you, on the other-hand, need to sow. Why? Because it is directly related to what you reap!!!
ECF, July is the month where the Elders encourage you to go deeper into rest, deeper into your relationships, deeper into the heart of the Kingdom. It’s not a vacation from responsibility and stewardship of God’s garden. If fact, it is the opposite. It should be the time to sow more, plant more, steward more. Maturity is sober about these kinds of things! Keep sowing! Be intentional with your giving. Make sure you plant what the Spirit directs you to plant. Be intentional about actually getting your seed into the hands of the Elders. That is what mature stewardship looks like.
Let me implore you to improve the garden in July. Take it to another level. Position yourselves and prophesy to the empty baskets! Claim the increase that lie hidden in the depths of God’s soil. Faithful diligence pays off! Patti and I are praying in agreement for your rich harvest!
-Mike-
