I am a lover of the outdoors and for different reasons depending upon the season. I enjoy wearing boots and sweaters, bundling up in the winter, and sitting by the fire drinking coffee watching Hallmark movies. Even though I look forward to the perks of a cooler season, I am tickled to see Spring peek out! All the lovely flowers and trees in bloom remind me how amazing God really is. Nature demonstrates His magnificence like none other. Can you imagine the beautiful flowers that give your spirit a boost all come from a tiny seed that is plotted in the dark soil. Let’s be honest, spiritually speaking, no one enjoys those dark seasons in life.  But in those dark environment’s, growth can still occur. The Holy Spirit can come in those dark seasons (or even in those dry places) and saturate us giving us what we need in the moment we need it most. It’s in that saturation that the seed begins to germinate. Once the seed is germinated it begins to give life as a little sprout begins forming and shooting through the ground. The same goes for our spiritual lives. Hard places leave us desiring the rain of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s saturation produces life. Sprouts of faith start to form. Sprouts push through the remainder of the hard ground because it realizes light is just ahead. When you go through difficult seasons and finally begin seeing the light again, your faith begins to grow as you lift your head toward the SON. Eventually, we begin to bloom and become what God intended.

What kind of seeds are you sowing? Are you sowing life? What you give your time and energy to are your seeds. Are you sowing toward the things of God or toward things that fulfill your natural or fleshly desires? The things of God will produce a harvest in your life, whereas the seeds of the flesh will produce desert places that continue to leave you feeling dry, deserted, and depressed. It’s hard work sowing seeds. Your hands get dirty when you pot a plant. But what is produced is worth the effort in the long run. Galatians 6:7-8 states, “Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Only you can determine what is worth your effort. I hope you will always sow to the spirit so you can produce life. Chances are, someone has planted seeds of faith in your life. Some of you were blessed that seeds of faith were planted in your childhood by a mother or a grandmother, whereas others may have had seeds planted later in life by a friend or a colleague. Growth will form from those efforts. You too are planting seeds. I encourage you to analyze and determine what type of seeds you are planting in other’s lives. Also, pay attention to your own growth. If you are growing spiritually, it will be a beautiful thing in the sight of others and will encourage their growth.

To those special people who have planted-and continue planting-seeds in my life (you know who you are), thank you! It’s my greatest desire that I too be found faithful planting seeds of life in the soil of other’s hearts.

What are you producing? Better yet, what are you planting?

Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash