The other day my teammate Olivia and I spent three hours tilling at Eden Christian Center’s farm, what they refer to as the “Plot.” Now intentionally that doesn’t sound like a difficult job, but as we got going, we realized how hard this job was actually going to be. The day before it had rained so the land was compacted and hard, almost impossible to break into. Plus we were each given a pitchfork as our only tool. Also, have I mentioned that I have never worked on a farm before? All the odds were not ever in our favor. It could have taken less than an hour had the ground been dry and had we been given more substantial tools, but instead it ended up taking us three. Through the back pains and the difficultly with spearing the soil, God revealed some important concepts to me.
First of all, sometimes all we are doing is tilling the land. This is exactly what was needed of Olivia and myself at the Plot. I know that a lot of times in doing ministry all I want to see is the harvest. I want to watch people grow and see the Lord work in the lives of the people I am trying to reach, but that may not necessarily happen the particular month that I am in these different places. Not only may we not get to see the harvest in other’s lives, a lot of times we won’t even see the immediate harvest in our own lives. God is constantly tilling the land in my life and I can’t imagine what the harvest will be in the end, but I know that God is growing something beautiful. There will be times when we need to ask God where exactly we may be needed to till the land. When Jesus appointed the seventy-two followers to send out, He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2 NIV). God needs more of us to be tillers. We need to make a way for God to do the harvest; the harvest is not up to us.
The second thing God revealed to me in His field was that we always have the tools we need, even when we think we don’t. “He qualifies the called.” Olivia and I struggled with those pitchforks and it definitely was not pitch perfect (pun intended). The tools themselves were heavy and bent in ways that made it difficult to plow. Though they were not tools we would have picked ourselves, they were tools that ended up getting the job done. Many times this happens in our lives. Personally, I think a lot about the fact that I don’t have the tools necessary to complete everything that God is asking me to. Every single time that is a lie and the devil wants me to think that I don’t have what it takes. God has given me the tools I need and I just have to be open and willing to allow Him to work through me. I don’t need to worry about what I think am incapable of and instead seek out God and His kingdom as it says in Matthew 6: 33-34, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”.
God is constantly giving us every tool we need to complete the plowing process for Him to finish the harvest. We just have to be willing to continue to serve Him and seek out His purpose. I’m willing to continue to be tiller for God, are you?
