1/14/15 – Plant, Water and Wait I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. (1 Corinthians 3:6-10 NIV) I have a good many friends and family who are farmers, and I imagine many of you do as well. I have often marveled at their tenacity and faith as they plant their seeds every year and wait for the rain or run expensive irrigation over the land then wait with faith for God to bring in the harvest. Many times their livelihood is on the line as well as the livelihood of their families. Often, I don’t think this is too different than our walk with Christ. Let me explain myself. I think that many of us can remember when someone planted a seed of Christianity in us. It could have been many years ago, and it could have been such a small seed, that we didn’t even realize someone had planted it. That person whom planted the seed likely watered it some, and then eventually God caused the growth to happen in us. Quite possibly we didn’t even know someone was watering that seed because they may have just been watering from afar with prayer. I don’t mean to minimalize prayer, however, as it can be better than any pivot irrigator at watering seeds, but water can come in other forms as well. “What do you mean?” you say. Well “water” in this sense means essentially to give life to, or even to feed for water is the most essential element of life. So, whoever planted that seed in you could have watered you to maturity as a Christian. This is where I think we get it wrong, however. Some plants drown with too much water, and we must remember that we don’t cause the growth. See 1 Corinthians 3:6 above, “God has been making it grow.” The sower did their job, the one who watered did their job, but it was God’s job to make it grow. Let me give you a couple examples. There was this one time that I was worried about the salvation of someone who was very close to me. At first I would just worry about it some, but then I started to lose sleep about it and it became something that consumed me. I couldn’t imagine not knowing where he would go should something happen and he pass without truly knowing Jesus Christ. I had a cowboy pastor friend that I decided I would visit with about this person and their situation. I really wanted to grab this person up, shake them and say, “Look, you need to know Jesus Christ because I want you to be in heaven with me.” I told the pastor that, and he being wiser than me decided on a different approach. He said, “Let’s pray that we plant a seed in him, and let God soften his heart and make him ready to receive His growth.” I’ll be honest, at first I felt this was a copout, but I obliged. The second we finished praying, God set a course of events in motion. Imagine this, God’s plan worked better than anything I could have ever made-up. In the course of one short week, he was saved and baptized and God allowed me to water him all week. It was truly amazing. Another time I remember a friend telling me a story about someone planting a profound seed of Christianity in him. He was at a rodeo and someone who he barely knew led a prayer for many of the cowboys standing around. A few short weeks later, his wife left him, he hit rock bottom and had nowhere to go. He ended up on the doorstep of the man who planted the seed as he literally had nowhere to stay. That Christian man took him in, watered him and watched God grow him in his Christian walk. See folks, in my instance I wanted to plant, water and grow everything myself in my timing, but it would have never worked. My approach would have turned him away from Christianity. However, God did what I thought would have taken months if not years to accomplish in one short week. In my friend’s instance, the one who planted the seed in him really didn’t even know he was planting a seed. Instead, he was just being obedient in praying with and for others. I think we can use both instances in our walk daily. As we share this amazing walk with others, sometimes we need to consciously be subtle and sometimes God will use our casual subtlety to His advantage. Either way, we must realize that it is not us but He that is causing the growth. We must simply plant, water and wait.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:34:08 +0000
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