Farming for Jesus - Part 1 of 4
Farming for Jesus (4 part series)
This will be a four part devotional series.
The four parts are;
Cultivating
Sowing
Growing
Harvesting
Farming for Jesus - Part 1 of 4
“And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”
Luke 8:10-12
My wife and I live in a rural area with farms, small and large, all around. Every year there are growing seasons for watermelons, peanuts and corn as well as other crops.
As I walked to feed our horses yesterday I watched a farmer as he drove his tractor to get a bale of hay. I started to think about the different process of farming and the jobs that are done during those processes. And then I started thinking about how it relates to the work of Jesus and the impact He’s had on our lives by putting Him at the center.
We grow a small amount of peaches, blueberries, apples and pears, nothing crazy, just a hobby amount. I’ve only planted small gardens from seed, but I imagine the basics are about the same.
The first part of farming for a crop is cultivating the soil.
Cultivating is the process of getting the soil ready for planting the seed. You have to find the right soil in order to plant the seed.
Sometimes when you can’t find the right soil, you have to make the right soil by adding or taking things away from it.
This requires a lot of work from the farmer. It requires removing soil, grass or weeds and adding soil or fertilizer to promote growth. The soil has to be in the right spot for the seed to be planted. You have to have the right season, temperatures and conditions.
The soil has to be prepared with enough time to be ready for the sowing/planting.
And this is how I look at cultivating Jesus in my life.
Cultivating is making ourselves available to receive Jesus Christ. Taking the bad things out of our life and making it the right place for God to do His work through us. We have to be ready to allow God to work in us and through us - only then will the seed properly grow.
We all have sin in our lives, we won’t stop that completely. But there are things we can stop. We can stop hanging out with people that are a bad influence or stop bad habits.
Cultivating allows us to have the right conditions prepared for our walk with Jesus and put the things in place to ensure successful growth.
Of course nothing is perfect, but with the proper preparation we can have a better chance of success.
“It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.”
Ezekiel 17:8