FAITHFULLY PLANTING
Matthew 17:20
And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
I grew up hunting in a time when you harvested any buck, if it had legal sized antlers. That size for us was anything over a 3" spike. We were happy to take home any buck. Most of our hunters across the USA today have a different outlook on hunting and buck sizes. The majority of areas that produce deer are being managed for bigger and more mature bucks. This means that a buck must grow old before it's harvested. Sometimes to get a buck to his fullest potential you have to wait for 5 or more years.
Over a 5 year span many things can happen to the bucks that you've been allowing to grow. Those bucks can be shot by a different hunter, hit by a car and killed, eaten by coyotes or wolves, succumb to an illness or many other possibilities. It takes real faith in the process to grow a buck to maturity. However if you want to continually grow mature, quality bucks you have to believe that you can do that and stick to it.
Many hunting land managers today are planting oak trees for deer habitat and food. An oak tree planted from an acorn today might not bear more acorns for 20 or more years, yet some land owners are planting. They know that someday those trees will grow more acorns for the deer to eat... and some of those acorns may again take root and the family of oaks continues to grow.
This is the faith we should have in our life and testimony for Christ. We need to be bold in our dedication to planting seeds. Many of us might never see the new lives that come from the planted seeds about Christ's love... But we are all called to be planters.
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul writes that he planted seeds into the lives of the people in his day, Apollos watered those seeds by continuing to share a Gospel message, but neither of them did the harvest of salvation. The harvest was left up to God Himself.
Like planting an oak takes patience so does planting seeds for Christ. We plant trusting God will provide the harvest, in His timing, not ours. We tell others about what Jesus Christ did for them, with the hope that one day they will have a relationship with Him. We may never see that conversion, but we must keep telling the story.
James 5:7-8
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Know that your work of planting will someday show a harvest. That your willingness to be bold in telling what Jesus did for you and can do for others, will one day bring growth in lives. We may not know what the harvest from your faith will be until we all gather in heaven.
A group of men from a small community in North Carolina once gathered on a small farm there. They prayed that God would raise up someone from their community to go and share His word to many others. They prayed with faith that God would do this. A young man came from the very farm and did what they prayed for. That young man was Billy Graham. Billy Graham went on to faithfully plant seeds for several decades. He planted around the world. He did it faithfully not knowing what the harvest would be... but he did it faithfully.
That's the faith we need to live out. We need to be FAITHFULLY PLANTING.
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