Do we plant to expect a return?

We should and it usually happens whether we want it to or not. Good deeds or bad... they work the same.

Some of our deeds we'd sooner hide, wouldn't we?

What about our thoughts?

Our words?

Our deeds?

Seeds are a tiny time capsule of life and of death.

Have you looked at life and death?  God wants us to ponder things (think).

We sometimes tie sticks to our crops, not just to hold them up but they also measure growth.  We do the same with each other, sometimes, especially those we love.

God has no measuring stick on us!  He knows our faults and our triumphs before we commit them.  He has preordained each of us and His seeds will not fail!

If we are well grounded in His faith and tended to through Holy Spirit good things will happen in our life from the seeds we plant, if not we will also reap the reward.  Never forget, the sin maybe forgiven but the consequences may not.  Like gravity, if we leap, we fall... kerplop!

Often a tree seems dead in the winter, even into spring time too; but it springs forth with blooms that herald the fruits it will offer a diligent grower if they have faith and wait.

If you want to know more, read on.

Are you seeking the Lord daily?

Do you ask the helper, the one who Jesus promised, to help you through your plantings?  To find the right seed, words that might work in the mind of those we desire to save.  Or, have you planted anything at all lately?  Maybe... maybe not.

Jonah 4 "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?" Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.

"When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?" "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"

This is a funny story to me. I mean Jonah was a biggie in the Bible stories when I was a kid.  He was a super star!  But, Jonah was unhappy because he knew God, and God was always right, and Jonah knew He would let those rotten people live!

It mortified Jonah that when he went to Nineveh to read them the riot act that God would forgive them.  He knew beforehand God would act righteously when they repented.

While Jonah's self-esteem seemed to be his greatest asset -- to him that is, he cared more about what people thought of him than he did of what God thought.

How many times have we gotten mad at God in a similar manner?

We think things ought to happen this way or that, but fortunately for us all God is always right regardless of what we might feel.  Not only that but he is always on our side... bummer. God says to us just as He said to Jonah, "do you have the right to be mad?"

Jonah cast seeds of doubt before God.  What happened to Jonah?  Does anybody have an idea?  No one knows, he was dropped from the scriptures.  A superstar fizzled out.

Galatians 6:7-10 "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

2 Corinthians 12:9,10. "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul is speaking to us all here. We must yield to God to receive our true strengths.

Did you know the heart of a tree is its strength, not the bark or outer layers. We should allow the Holy Spirit to tend our outer garments striving that our hearts be filled with the knowledge of God.

Look at the seed you hold in your hand sometime.  Such a seed was sacrificed by a living plant to keep the chain going. 

Have you ever noticed sometimes a dying plant gives up its last bit of life to produce a beautiful bloom. Then it dies from the offering of it.  Nevertheless, seeds grow within the bosom of the dieing bloom.

Often, times will come when we are attacked, like the tomato plants or flowers we plant in our garden.  There is world of ugly creatures attacking us just like our plants, some as gross as the slugs and worms we hate in the garden.

Do you know what your potential is?  Seek the Lord and He will come to you. Rebuke the devil and he will flee. Get things straight in your head, a flower bloom is in your life to give, then a seed comes to keep the Kingdom of God growing.

What are your seeds?  Your thoughts?  Your deeds?  Your loves?

They are all seeds, you know!

Don't act like Jonah and run from the truth.

Run to the Lord and you will find rest.

Faith is a seed.  Love is a seed.  Forgiveness is a seed.  Know what seeds you are casting and remember the harvest will come in like manner.

2 Corinthians 9:6-10. "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."

Find your seeds in a righteous living. There you will flourish and bloom where you are planted.   If you purposely find yourself any other place, you might find anguish and anger LIKE JONAH.

If you desire to know more about this Jesus Christ who loves you, and you want to ask Him  into your heart, receiving His Saving Grace please click on this Salvation Prayer