Sowing Seeds of Light

I discovered a really amazing verse recently. It's a bit of encouragement right from Heaven. It says, "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." (Ps. 97:11) "How can light be sown?" I wondered. So I did a little studying up on the verse. Albert Barnes says, "The figure of sowing light is an unusual one, but the meaning is plain. It is, that the righteous will not always be in darkness; that there is in preparation for him a harvest of joy; that it will as certainly be produced as a harvest will from grain that is sown; that though there may be present calamities, there will be ultimate peace and triumph." 

The Lord wants us to know that when we're in the dark, He's sowing light. He's sowing and planting on our behalf. He's steadily working, placing His precious seeds in the soil of our lives, and He's going to nurture  them to full growth. 

The thought of God sowing anything in our lives is an exciting one. But what's even more exciting is this: there are seven specific laws of harvest, and they most certainly apply to God's sowing of light in our lives.

1) We reap only what has been sown. What is not sown cannot be reaped. God wants us to reap light and gladness later, so He's making preparation for that future joy today.

2) We reap the same kind as we sow. He sows light and we will reap light, never darkness.

3) We reap in a different season than we sow. The way I see it, the Lord plants His seeds of light during the darkest seasons of our lives, rather than the springtime of life. When all seems dead and hopeless, He's working ahead to give us beauty for ashes. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jer. 29:11)

4) We reap more than we sow. If God sows an abundance of seeds, then the harvest we will reap will be grander than we can ever dream! We will reap some of that harvest here on earth, but when we get to Heaven I think we'll be in complete awe of all that God will give to us. "And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 8:8)

5) We reap in proportion to what we sow. The Lord doesn't "skimp" on anything He does. Our God is exceedingly gracious. He sows much and we will reap much.

6) We reap only if we faint not. The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not grow weary! (Isa. 40:28) You can count on a full harvest!

7) We can't do anything about last year's harvest, but we can do something about this year's harvest. We may have prevented the Lord from bringing a full harvest of light and gladness into our lives in the past, but if we're faithful and patient as He sows and nurtures His seeds in our lives, we can depend upon Him to give us all we need and more.

Dear reader, make certain your heart is "good ground" for the Lord to plant His seeds of light in. This promise is given to "the righteous" and "the upright in heart." Put yourself in position for God's blessings by living up to His precious Word.

Sometimes the work preparatory to sowing is difficult. It means breaking up hard, fallow ground that is full of stones, roots and weeds, three things that would choke His seeds from springing up into fruitfulness. We need to be patient with the Lord as He breaks up the fallow ground of our hearts.

I don't understand why, but God is so, so gracious. I think the Lord told us "it is more blessed to give than to receive" because He knows. He endured the old rugged cross and the shame of our wicked sins all "for the joy that was set before Him." (Heb. 12:2) He knows that it was truly more blessed to give because of all the joy that He has had in welcoming every lost, weary sinner into Heaven.

God's loving heart is blessed when He blesses us. He so wants to fill us up with good things, but sometimes we simply won't let Him because we see no present advantage, or we don't like the preparatory work He is doing in our lives. Let God do what He wants! It's not important that we understand right now. Only trust that God has very good plans in the works.

Just think, God wants to do all of this for us. He wants to do all this work just so we'll find joy in the life He's given us. If we'll only allow Him to sow His seeds in our lives, one day we will reap a rich, bountiful harvest of light and gladness.