Imagine planting a garden, and then daily digging up the seeds to see if they are growing. Your garden likely will not grow well, if at all, if this is your practice. Gardening is based on a faith assumption that seeds planted in fertile soil, properly watered and with enough sunshine, will germinate and grow. The progress of God's word is no different.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it' (Isaiah 55:10-11)

You and I are in the gardening business. We've been entrusted with sowing seed that is guaranteed to produce a harvest. Now, it may not yield the exact harvest that we anticipate or would prefer, but it will be effective. A major factor in the harvest is the type of soil it is sown in, as Jesus' famous Parable of the Sower and Soil (Matthew 13) tells us. But, if we faithfully sow the seed, there is the promise of harvest. There absolutely cannot be a harvest if there is no planting of seed.

The greatest privilege of my life is to be a sower of the seed. I have utmost confidence in the potential of the seed - the "word of the kingdom" (Matthew 13:19) - to accomplish exactly what God intends for it. Through preaching, teaching, discipling, and sharing these written thoughts, I am confident that growth and progress occurs in proportion to the type of soil it is sown in.

If the seed were my personal words, I would have plenty to be concerned about. All I can offer is opinion and commentary, and those words are no more authoritative or productive than anyone else' words. The only effective words are God's; the "word of the kingdom".

You and I can never produce a harvest, but we can confidently sow seed that will. Whenever we bring the word of God to bear on people's lives and their life situations, we can be completely confident that His word is actively at work accomplishing God's purposes. We likely will not see immediate results, and may never see any results even in our lifetime, but the word is at work.

Let the word of God permeate your life, through reading and study, and allow it to produce the crop that God desires. As those in whom the seed is at work, go out with confidence and sow the seed into the lives of those around you who will receive it.

Steve