LEARNING DAILY

 

Galatians 6:7-9, Don’t be misled. Remember you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow! Those who live to satisfy only their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. (NLT)

 

I am going to gently speak the truth today. I have been one who has tried “to satisfy only their own sinful desires” while calling myself a Christian. When God really got my attention and made me see the consequences of my actions, I knew it was time to get serious about the things I was sowing. So, these verses have become very meaningful to me.

 

“Those who claim to be born-again followers of Christ while at the same time are consciously sowing to please their sinful nature are guilty of mocking God” (LSSB). These are tough words; they are better to be seen now and understood in order for those guilty to repent. No one wants to be face to face with God trying to explain their actions to Him. We must not be deceived for “those who live to satisfy only their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death.” This can be put another way: sowing to the flesh means that we do whatever makes it feel good. It means we allow our mind to indulge in things the Bible clearly states are morally wrong. It means we stay in someone’s presence that we know is filling our mind with impurity and wrong thinking which causes us to do the things we know we should resist. A Christian cannot sow to the flesh every day and then wonder why he is not reaping holiness and God’s righteousness. It is trying to be a Christian while walking “on the broad way that leads to destruction”.

 

The DJSB states that there are four underlying principles to “you reap what you sow”. 1). You will reap if you sow. 2). You reap what you sow. 3) You reap more than what you sow. 4). You reap later than you sow. Satan is always trying to tell you and me that there is no penalty for sin. Or, he might be telling you that go ahead and sin and then repent. His temptation always comes with the question over what God really said or meant when He said …. There is no small sin with God! The law of sowing and reaping will come to pass.

 

What do we do? “So don’t get tired of doing what is good.” There were many times while teaching I wanted to bang my head on the wall because I thought what I was doing was having no effect with students (and even some teachers). I wanted to see results! Verse 9 was always a strength for me because God said, “Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.” At the appropriate time the results or harvest will occur. Your responsibility and my responsibility is to continue to sow the seed and let God accomplish the results. You and I have to believe faith in Jesus Christ will be rewarded in due time.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB.