You Reap WHAT You Sow!
You don't reap WHERE you sow, you reap WHAT you sow!
Last Friday we had a youth fellowship at my local church, I met up with a friend about an hour earlier, so we decided to drop by a coffee shop to grab a snack before we headed to the church. As indecisive as I am about food, I spent a good chunk of the not so very long line thinking about what to get. My friend had her mind made up already and there I was reading the menus over and over and scanning through the display to see what could grab my attention long enough to become a choice.
Of course, the chocolate chip muffin won once again (It's the only pastry I seem to pick anytime I'm at a pastries shop!) and a hot chocolate just like my friend. As we paid for our order there was a donation tin right at the front, it was quite empty which was sort of reasonable since it was right in the middle of two giant counters and the pay computer screen almost like it was put there with no hopes of anyone bothering to donate change.
They gave me my change and I told my friend, 'Let's give this to charity." My voice portrayed through enough for the person at the back of the line to here. (Yes, I looked behind and saw him look at me with all the attention I unintentionally asked for!) Regardless, I took a few quarters and dropped them in, my friend also dropped in some of hers too and then we stood back and waited for our hot chocolate.
As I came back home, I was listening to a sermon which made me re-think on this scenario, the message was that many people assume that results or miracles will come from the places they expect, they feel like the same people they bless are the ones to bless them, the ones they help are the ones to return the favor, the ones they love should be the ones to love them back.
But this is not the case, you do not reap where you sow, you reap what you sow, your harvest does not necessarily come from the same place you plant, those that you bless may not be the ones going to bless you when time is come, the things that you invest your time and resources in may not be the things that define your fruit, that place that you're working so diligently at may not be the place of your promotion, that subject that your investing your time and effort in may not be the one you are going to take a career into, that passion you have may not be what is going to make you achieve success but the seed that you have planted, the time you have invested, the prayers you offered for that person, your labors, the love you so selflessly gave to that individual is not taken for granted.
God sees your heart, and rewards accordingly. Just like Mordecai was honored for saving the king's life. (It happened way long after he had done this honorable act that God caused the king to literally lose sleep and decide to have the scrolls of the honorable people read to him, hearing and being reminded of Mordecai's act, he decided to honor him in a very grand way! - Read more of this story in Esther 2), Cornelius the Gentile who was blessed with his entire household his diligence in giving and seeking the Lord and many other events in the Bible.
That's why David wrote, 'I was young, now I'm old, and I have never seen the Lord's Righteous put to shame. You're on the right track! Choose to stay true!
"Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving."
2 Corinthians 9:6-7 MSG