Ecclesiastes 11:4, Amplified
“He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to be favorable] will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.”
As human beings, we like to know that our efforts will succeed. We like to sow into ventures that will guarantee fruit of some kind. Therefore, it’s good to know that the circumstances are favourable, and the odds are in our favour when we sow. Yet, the key scripture tells us that if we’re constantly waiting for the right conditions to sow, we may end up never sowing, and consequently never reaping.
Sowing a seed needs surrender. When you release a seed to fall into the ground, you’re surrendering it for the ground to receive it. You may water and nurture it, but ultimately God causes the growth. While it’s hidden you may not be able to track its progress and predict the fruit it will yield, but you sow it anyway, because you have a confident expectation of reaping something.
When we sow good seeds into people’s lives, like love, compassion, forgiveness, kindness and even finances, we need to surrender the harvest of it to the Lord. Jesus lived a life of love while He walked this earth. He loved the righteous and the sinners alike, and touched, healed, and fellowshipped with, all of them, leaving the outcome of it to His Father. He never waited for man’s validation or perfect circumstances.
Perhaps you’re looking at where you are right now in your life, and wishing that circumstances were better for you to serve the Lord in some way or the other. Perhaps you’re waiting for the storms around your life to settle down before you get involved in your local church, cell group or some ministry. Maybe you’re waiting for that increase in your salary before you begin tithing. Whatever ‘seed’ you’re carrying in your heart, don’t wait any longer. Stop looking for ‘conditions to be favourable’. Sow anyway and leave the harvest to God.
Ecclesiastes 11:6 says, ‘In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hands, for you know not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good’. Don’t hold back the seed in your hand. Surrender it to God to bring the increase and the harvest.
Prayer: Father God, You’re a generous God who didn’t hold back Your most precious gift, Jesus, but ‘sowed’ Him into a broken, sinful and imperfect world to be its Saviour. Help me, Lord, not to hold back what You’ve placed within me to give, even when circumstances are imperfect, and to trust You with the harvest and the rewards.
