Seeds sown, seeds watered and harvest ready.
Christians over specialize the moment of someone believing Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Don’t get me confused, when someone believes all of Heaven celebrates and it should be celebrated for good reason! As believers we celebrate with them. They know Jesus! And His Love! It’s amazing! That moment is what seals them. Amen. Hallelujah. That’s the moment they will talk about for the rest of their life, when their heart changed.
But if we look more closely to the lives of every Christian we will see more then just a moment of choice, we would see hundreds of moments, of thoughts, and of people who made that decision possible. And they all are important! Everyone is on their own journey with God, if they are in another religion all together, God pursues them, if they don’t believe in any higher power, God will pursue them, if they are confused about Christianity God will still pursue them so they find out the truth, and most of the time God uses His children to pursue through them.
Honesty time. Selfishly I have prayed to be part of that moment of praying with someone because they want to give their life to Jesus or have influenced that decision in a large way. I have been so discouraged because of trying so hard, and beating myself up because I have maybe prayed with one person at a summer camp to give their life’s to Jesus because they wanted to. I’ve seen over my life growing up in church, going to bible camps, and now on the mission field many people come to Christ but I’ve never directly influenced their decisions. Or so I thought.
Humbled time. When you go on a missions trip that is what I prayed for the most and what I still pray for, people to know Christ as their savior and friend. But God has been taking everything I have expected and changed it. Thanks God:) Everything we do on mission is to bring Gods Kingdom where ever we go. So if we are passing by a restaurant, if we are in an Uber, if we don’t speak the same language, if we are playing with kids or having a conversation with someone, or walking down a street, we have the light of the world, we have Jesus, we have His Holy Spirit to help us, we have our testimonies, we have truth, we have the aroma of Christ.
We sow seeds. We water those seeds. We harvest them when they are ready. It all matters, it is all important and is all the will of the Father. Reading Gods word He shows me I don’t have to beat myself up for not “checking off numbers” of people coming to Jesus. Maybe we were the first to plant the seed in someone’s life and for the next 10 years they think about it and end up believing the word of God. Or they don’t. No matter how one believes we can’t force Jesus’ love on anyone (they have it even if they don’t know it).
My brother texted me this “. Something I have learned the hard way is that God is doing the work anyway.. it is my mouth saying the words but it is God softening their hearts and everything. Also it would be weird for a gardener to till the ground, throw all the big rocks out, take all the weeds out, plant the seeds and water the ground. And another gardener take care of the plant when it grows and take all the credit for all the hard work.”
We all have a part. We all know it, when we look at our lives, we have many testimonies or people coming into our lives showing us Jesus, and we have people that water us to help us grow in Jesus.
So simply put, I don’t want numbers and neither does Jesus, He wants our lives daily. Not to be in “full time ministry” and check out but to make ministry life. Every moment. To make sure that when I leave somewhere that people will see and feel a difference not because of me but because of who I am in Christ and who is at work through me. It’s literally not me, it’s Jesus. All the time. It’s not a job. It’s life.
Prayer Requests from Indonesia
*that as a team we will be ready to sow, water or harvest in the lives of those around us. God’s will be done here in Indonesia, and that as a team, as a body we will lay our lives down daily.
*protection
*health
Straight from the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Matthew 13:1-9
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Matthew 13:18-23
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
2 Corinthians 9:6
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully
Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Thank you supporters and prayer warriors! I love you all:)
Be blessed!
Love, Gabby
