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SCRIPTURE SEEDS | DON'T GROW WEARY

   
We're one week into Lent and our Scripture Seeds series! Maybe today you’re feeling a mix of things — waiting for what’s to come, weariness of change, wonder as each day will get a little closer to the cross. As we continue planting seeds this season, I want to encourage you not to grow weary by digging deeper into Galatians 6. 
  
The harvest you reap reveals the seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds of self-life into this natural realm, you can expect a harvest of corruption. If you plant the good seeds of Spirit-life, you will reap beautiful fruits that grow from the everlasting life of the Spirit. And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming! Galatians 6:8-9 TPT
  
  
The first part of Galatians 6:9 — don’t grow weary in planting good seeds — is our heart for Scripture Seeds. I love the words that surround it too — The harvest you reap reveals the seed you planted…if you plant good seeds of Spirit-life, you will reap fruits from everlasting life of the Spirit…the season of reaping the wonderful harvest is coming!
     
     
What are you planting? Verse 8 says that planting good seeds of Spirit-life reaps everlasting life grown from the Spirit. Let's visualize planting seeds in an actual backyard garden. You go out into the garden with all the necessary tools — shovel, seeds, fertilizer, top soil, watering can filled to the brim. You’re eager and ready to get your hands working in the dirt. You follow all the steps and water the newly planted seeds with extra care. Then you wait. You don’t have control over how the seeds grow — how tall or how fast or how well. You simply planted the seeds and gave it the right elements to spark growth. Each day you check on the garden of seeds, watering and watching for the first green shoot to appear. But for a while it’s only dirt. Diligently patient timing and tending are needed for sustainable growth. 
    
    
Doesn’t life feel this way too? You're waiting on something or someone with the best intentions. You think you’ve followed the steps and set it up just right. And then nothing happens. The garden feels empty. I think Mary Magdalene might have felt this way when she first met the man she thought was a gardener on the third day after Jesus’ death. The tomb was empty but where was Jesus? All she wanted to know was if he knew where Jesus' body was. Jesus told His disciples ahead of time about His coming death and resurrection, but I can’t imagine what it must have felt like as a witness living it in real time. Wasn’t He supposed to be the One, the shoot from the stump Jesse, they had been waiting for? But it only took one word for Mary to know the gardener was indeed Jesus: “Mary!” How could a gardener know her by name unless He was Jesus? Yes, He's the One! And yet during those days between Jesus on the cross and His resurrection, Mary, Jesus’ family, the disciples, and everyone else waited with breath held. They had no control over the situation and some feared for their own lives. But from death came life redeemed! Living hope was found in an empty tomb early that Sunday morning. 
  
    
What are you putting your hope in today? An empty garden of planted seeds, or an empty tomb? Don’t get me wrong, planting seeds on this side of heaven is good and we should absolutely do it! These “seeds” could be just about anything — earning a degree, accepting a new job, pursuing marriage, growing a family, starting a business, training for a marathon, you name it. These things are worthwhile, even if the season hasn’t come yet. But if we only tend to those seeds, we’ll always be staring down an empty garden of what we don’t have yet. Yet, having hope rooted in Jesus above all else keeps our faith secure when life’s seeds take longer to grow, grow differently than expected, or perhaps don’t grow at all. In the NLT version, Galatians 6:9 says that at just the right time — not before, not after, not when we say it’s time — we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. This is not a prosperity statement, a “you help me and I’ll help you” or “pull yourself up by the bootstraps kind of thing. 
   
    
Planting seeds is hard work, but waiting can be even harder. I love Psalm 25:5 in TPT. It says, "Escort me into Your truth; take me by the hand and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; I have wrapped my heart into yours all day long!” There’s a footnote saying that the most common Hebrew word for ‘wait’ as in waiting upon the Lord is qavah, meaning “to tie together by twisting,” “to entwine,” or “to wrap tightly.” It goes on to say “this is a beautiful concept of waiting upon God, not passively, but entwining hearts with Him.” While we wait faithfully on the Lord, our hearts are entwined deeper into God’s will and His Kingdom on earth as in heaven. As our roots grow down into Him and our lives are build on Him (Colossians 2:7), our vision shifts beyond our own planted seeds of plans and ambitions. He is able to immeasurably more than we could ask and think. (Ephesians 3:20). I find great comfort in the promise that His plans and abilities far exceed my own. Burden lifted! My living hope is in the empty tomb, and not my own garden. Is yours?
   
   
So how do we not grow weary in the waiting? There’s a perfect little footnote in Galatians 6:8 (TPT) about good seeds. I like to think of these as Spirit-breathed seeds. It says, “These “good seeds” would include prayer, Bible study, speaking wise words, giving, loving, and dropping “seeds” of love and truth every day from our new creation life.” Chills, friend! Do you have them too? All of these “seeds” help us dig deeper in faith so our roots are firm. That’s how we don’t grow weary — That’s why we don’t give up! It’s good to plant seeds here on this side of heaven, but we can’t grow those seeds well without first planting Spirit-breathed seeds. And that enlightens the very purpose behind Scripture Seeds this Lenten season. As we set out to do good in our lives and in the world, we must first plant seeds of faith. I believe reading, studying, and sharing Scripture are beautiful ways to begin. The harvest we reap reveals the seed we planted — imagine the harvest that comes from planting Scripture. It doesn’t stop at reaching our hearts — it spills into every corner of our lives and to others. 
May it be so.
   

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