Pieter is upset. He’s done something that makes him so angry at himself again. Some time ago he met someone who made him see the light and now he’s gone and messed everything up again. O no! She had taught him about real love again. She even persuaded him back to the Lord and now this.

You see, he works at a place where alcohol is off limits for a whole month long and that first evening that the alcohol light turned green there were no brakes and one thing led to another. Man! He really didn’t want to. And unprotected as well.

The results are endless, because Pieter feels dirty, concerned about his health, humiliated, guilty and disappointed. Likewise his self-image was on the sidewalk for everybody to trample on. He says he wants to pull the plug on his life, because everything has been messed up.

I feel deeply sorry for Pieter, because he has sown his seed in the wrong place. I encourage him. I pray for him. I help him see where he had done wrong and where he should go to make things right. I try to make him understand that we can pray to God asking for a miracle here and a miracle there, but that we should also accept the consequences of our actions and the seed that we had sown.

God is merciful, but we harvest what we have planted. Paul knew this very well. He knew that if you spend all your time and energy on worldly things, your harvest will be worldly things. Therefore, he warned the people of Galatia: 7Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. 8The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Really very simple. Actually, quite obvious. If we plant our lives where God is not, we will live a godless life. A life where God is not, is the pits. Nothing more, nothing less. But if you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to plough your lands, you will bear Spirit-filled fruit.

If Pieter had only thought about the possible harvest before taking that first step in the wrong direction, he would have turned around. His thoughts would quickly have shown him a harvest that didn’t look good and made him feel guilty and dirty, concerned about his health status, humiliated, disappointed and his self-image on the sidewalk for everybody to trample on. If in that moment he had only allowed himself to walk with the Holy Spirit, he would never have given a step in the wrong direction.

We can save ourselves a lot of difficulty, tears and reproach. The things of God are not nuclear physics. Stay away from the devil’s slippery slope. You’ll trip and fall very easily there. Rather sow your seed in holy places. There will be lovely fruit for many to feast on.

May this be true for all of us.

Galatians 6:1-9

Reflection

Where are you sowing your seed?

What does the fruit look like that you are harvesting?

Do you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you?

Prayer

Father, we mess up so easily. Sometimes we know we’re messing up, but then we keep on doing what we’re doing. Please help us not to be so stupid and not sow where the seed falls onto poor soil. This always leads to death. Please help us sow responsibly so that we can receive eternal life with You as harvest. Amen