Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Willie Robertson
Devotional: Every Christian Is a Farmer
Mr. Robertson’s quote really hits the nail on the head when it comes to Christian fellowship. It’s not just about spouting dogma or doctrine to each other. It’s not about preaching to the choir.
If you want something reassuring regarding doctrines and biblical teachings, you can easily find that from a large number of sources. You don’t necessarily have to go to church for that. Instead, church really is all about fellowship. And its core, fellowship is all about encouragement.
Make no mistake about it. The world is quite unfriendly to faith. There are many signals and challenges that life throws your way that are intended to shake your faith, or at the very least dilute your faith. There are many ways that living in the world forces you to compromise certain parts of your faith. That’s the kind of fallen world we live in.
When we engage in genuine Christian fellowship, we become farmers. Why? We are constantly planting seeds into each other’s lives. These seeds are seeds of encouragement, or discouragement. We choose what kind of seeds we plant. Either we plant seeds of life or seeds of death.
The truth is, this personal farming doesn’t just apply to Christian fellowship. It applies to everybody you meet. Every word that comes out of your mouth is a planted seed. Either that seed brings forth life that encourages or helps people, or it just drags them down. Either the seeds that you plant help people become more optimistic, more positive, and more joyful regarding life, or reinforce the negativity that life naturally throws their way. It is your choice.
Keep in mind that this choice is not empty. You can’t just be throwing seeds around randomly, end expect that it really doesn’t have an effect.
Seeds of Life Lead to Christ
When you sow seeds of life, meaning you sow seeds of encouragement into the lives of people you meet—not just in church—those seeds can lead to Jesus. You have to remember that people are sick and tired of being preached to. People are sick and tired of being told what to do, how they should act, and how to think. They’ve heard it a million times before, and guess what? They’d rather not hear it again.
However, when you sow seeds of life in to the lives of other people not based on your words but followed up by your actions, people will stand up and pay attention. Why? Because it’s so rare. The truth is that seeds of life lead people to live their lives to their fullest potential.
As Jesus Christ said, “I have come so that you may have life to the fullest.” He wants us to be the happiest that we could be, He wants us to be the most fulfilled and content that we can be. He wants us only the best things for us.
We can do our part as Christians when we are conscious about the seeds that we plant in the lives of people around us. Every word counts. The way you say your words count, your mannerisms count, and most importantly, your actions count.
Seeds of Death Are Easy to Plant
Did you know that seeds of death don’t need any fertilizer? They just grow and grow because the human heart is wicked. The human heart doesn’t need encouragement to be sinful. The human heart and mind doesn’t need further instructions to look at the negative side, to look at everything from the worst possible perspective.
The seeds of death are very easy to plant. To plant bad seeds, you only need to do one thing. In fact, you don’t need to put in that much effort at all.
What do you need to do? Follow what comes naturally. What follows naturally when you follow your flesh and your desires often leads to sin, because it’s often selfish, self-absorbed, and it’s often not based on compassion and living for others.
You Reap What You Sow
At the end of the day, it’s all about cause and effect. The Bible is not immune to this. In fact, the Bible is clear in at least two places, that you will reap what you sow.
According to the book of Galatians, if you sow to the spirit, you will reap righteousness and you will reap positive things. However, if you sow to the flesh, meaning you sow to the sinful side of yourself, you will also reap accordingly.
