Why do I give? #5

I want a harvest

If you are a little cynical about some of the claims from preachers around the idea of "harvest", trust me, I totally understand...I am the first to admit that maybe some have taken the concept on a pendulum swing too far?
But, and I mean a big BUT...
Please don't throw away the spiritual principal based on a potentially misguided emphasis!

Scripture is actually pretty clear about how life works.
It reminds us that there are seasons.
It reminds us that there is a time to sow and a time to harvest.
And for me I find this easy to picture because of my childhood...

I grow up on a farm that included growing grain and seed crops.
Each year my Dad and uncle would pick a certain time of year to sow what they wanted to harvest more of at a certain date.
It was very calculated. Well planned. Our livelihoods depended on the process.

I can still picture going out in the fields after the seed and was sown and struck by nothing. That's right, there was just dirt and the tire tracks from where the machinery had been.
It wasn't until later you got a glimpse of a potential harvest when the shoots finally emerged.

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.

2 Corinthians 9:10 niv

God wants you to have a harvest.
To get that harvest He supplies you with seed.
In your hands is the seed right now for your future harvest.
And you sow in faith, not expecting a harvest the next day, but at a time God blesses you with.
As seed is hidden for a time, so is the growth of the spiritual and material harvest you will receive.

Let us not become weary in doing good, 
for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9 niv

I unashamedly sow for a harvest!
Yes I give to God for many other reasons, especially my love for Him.
But I would be naive to think I could ever reap a harvest without first choosing to sow...