What Do You Do With Your Harvest?
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR HARVEST?
What will you do with your harvest?
What will you do? What will you do?
Use it to honor the Master,
And He will honor you.
From hymn Your Harvest by M.E. Dustin
There was once a farmer who always had an award-winning corn crop. A reporter read how the farmer always shared his best seeds with his neighbors and decided to interview the farmer about it. He asked, “Sir, why would you share your best seeds with your neighbors knowing they will enter their corn in the competition against you. Wouldn’t this make it difficult for you to win?” The farmer took a deep breath before answering, “During the season when the strong wind comes across the fields, pollen from the ripening corn swirls from field to field. It is most important to understand that if my neighbors grow poor corn, the cross-pollination will ultimately degrade the quality of my own corn. So, if I want to grow great corn, I must help my neighbor grow good corn, as well.”
This story demonstrates just one of many expectations God has for the harvest he has so generously allowed us to reap. The world’s economy says “store up wealth and you will have it when you need it”. God’s economy says in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In the flesh it doesn’t seem to make sense. How can I be richer if I give part of my harvest away? It is one of the laws of reciprocity in the Kingdom of God. If I hold my hand out and give toward others, God holds His hand out and gives toward me. See, God doesn’t need your money, He needs your obedience. Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with even more.
How do we honor God with our harvest? First, recognize that it is all His. He is the giver. He is the provider. You can never outgive God. Allow Him to use your harvest in blessing others. Second, be responsible with your harvest. Don’t spend it frivolously. Don’t go into debt to have all the things now because your neighbor has those things. Save up, spend wisely. Spend as you have the increase to do so. Third, take care of your family with the resources God has given you. Titus says “devote yourselves to doing what is good, in order that you may provide for urgent needs.” Often in our search for financial security it is easy to end up ignoring the needs of others. Fourth, enjoy the harvest God has given to you. God is a good and loving God who gives generously to His children. He says He will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. He intends for you to enjoy it with much thanksgiving. So, give thanks for the harvest He has so richly given to you.
Deuteronomy 28:8 – The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. (NIV)
