If You Sow Generously You Will Reap Generously

If you have been working to be saved then you don’t know Christ. You might say, “What about all the good I’ve done?” It is but filthy rags! A saint is one who has been separated unto God; someone who has been separated to be like Jesus. Take your eyes off of yourself and place them on Christ. Take the consciousness off of yourself and place it on God.

The world has their consciousness on themselves. They are always concerned about what they can do, what they look like. They think, “What do people think about me?” Instead the consciousness must remain on Jesus if you are going to glorify God.

            Because of the grace of God, we are allowed to live in eternity with Christ. Romans 9:31-32 says:

. . . but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.  Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.”

 

Israel had rejected Christ because they wanted to pursue God through their works, not by faith. America does the same thing. Americans believe they are alright before God. They say that they have not killed or raped anyone; therefore, they are worthy to go to heaven. Their works are “righteous!” America sends money and aid around the world. We help people. We are righteous. However, God says that it is not our works that allow us to enter into heaven; it is his grace through his Son, Jesus.

Is your life perfect? Of course not! You know that you make mistakes. We cannot hope to live up to the standards of a Holy God. God is so perfect, our standards cannot hope to measure up to him. Therefore, we must have a mediator so we can enter into his presence; that mediator is Jesus.

Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith in God. Noah built the ark by faith. Moses left Egypt by faith; everyone who is declared righteous in the Bible acted by faith in God. If not, we are just like all of the other religions that try to work their way into heaven. We cannot give anything to God that he does not have already. All we can give to him is our love.

The Old Testament prophets did not get to see the promises of God in their lifetime. Nevertheless, through the faithfulness of God the promises were fulfilled. The promises were fulfilled by the future grace of God; the grace we can trust in because God said he would give it to us.

            As we are giving our love to God, we are not paying a debt; we are simply giving our love out of our heart. It is not because of gratitude. It is because we are looking forward to his grace, trusting in what God has told us.

Because of God’s grace you will want to work. It is not by your work that you are saved, it is by the promised grace of God.

If your employer said to you, “If you will do this job I will pay you,” would you not do the work? Of course you would. People work because of promises every day. As you work, you begin to trust your employer to continue to pay you; therefore you continue to do the work. What you do comes from a trust relationship you have with your employer. How much more a loving Father who has never let anyone down since before time began. God’s promises are real and can be trusted.

Perhaps at this juncture it might be beneficial to point out that man measures God’s promises in the wrong way. Common man might believe God has let him or her down because of some crisis he or she has faced. However, on every occasion, one has to be honest about the circumstances involved with the crisis. On every occasion I believe you will discover that the crisis was man-made. In fact, every crisis stems back to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. It is the sin of man that allowed sin to enter into the world to begin with. Therefore, it can actually be said that your crisis was created by man.

If you are not willing to agree with the summation of the Fall of Man, then let’s bring your crisis closer to home. People of twenty-first century America are not willing to take responsibility for their actions. It is easier to blame someone else and, many times, that someone is God.

One day I had a woman in my office. After telling her about Christ, I invited her to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She declined. As I inquired of her further she said that she was mad at God. It seems that some years earlier she had been in a car accident which took the life of her boyfriend and put her in the hospital for an extended period of time. As I asked her to explain further she said they were going 90 mph and hit something. I asked her if she tried to get out of the car or asked her boyfriend to slow down. She said no, she was having fun. I then told her that it was not God’s fault that she had the accident; it was her boyfriend’s fault. One might even go so far as to say that it was her fault for not trying to stop his reckless driving.

If one begins to look at the failures of one’s life, one will most likely have to proclaim that it is not God’s fault, it is their own. God did not make the failed choices he is blamed for.

Conversely, one must proclaim the successes to be from God’s laws. God’s law says that if one works, he will reap a harvest; the just and the unjust. If one does not work, one will not succeed to the glory of God.

Genesis 3:19 says that man will work by the sweat of his brow. There will be thorns and thistles that will impair reaping, but God gives us the promise that if we will clear the thorns and thistles, he will give us a crop. He will give us a bounty.

If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, but if you sow generously you will reap generously (2 Corinthians 9:6). God promises success to those who follow his laws.  

At this point, you might possibly be thinking, “What about Job?” He presumably did nothing but was punished anyway. Wrong again! He was punished by Satan, he was tested by God and in the end he was blessed abundantly for his faithfulness. The promises made by God are on the Solid Rock; Jesus.