Harvest

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I don’t know the first thing about farming from experience. I’m what you might call a “city boy.” Green Acres is not the place for me! But I do know some principles about farming from talking with a few in my lifetime, and by reading about them. Scripture deals with principles of farming as well.

One of the main things we learn from Scripture is that a harvest does not come without diligent effort on part of the farmer. There are things a farmer must do if he or she expects to reap a bountiful harvest. Things like cultivating the soil, planting seed at the right time, and nurturing the plants to maturity. Each and every step is thoughtful, disciplined, and orderly.

Bearing spiritual fruit is the same. It is not a haphazard process. One must pursue the knowledge of God’s will, which is revealed in the Word. Paul had this in mind when he prayed for the Colossian Christ followers to increase “in the knowledge of God’s will” [1.9]. 

Grammatically, one could say “increasing IN” or “increasing BY.” Both are acceptable renderings of the word. “In” emphasizes the need to grow and “By” emphasizes the means by which one grows. 

One of Satan’s tactics to impede spiritual productivity is to get us preoccupied with bankrupt substitutes for God’s truth. In Colosse, he planted false teachers that said knowing God’s will was inadequate for spirituality, that they needed more, which could only be taught to them by those same false teachers. But Paul would not let them get away with that. He told them that in Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” [2.3]. Christ is all you need. 

We must grow in the “grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ” [2 Peter 3.18]. That’s how we can expect a bountiful, spiritual harvest. Your fruitfulness is directly related to your knowledge of divine truth.

Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. Colossians 1.10