“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:9–10, ESV)
One time I heard the pinging sound while making turns in our Mazda. So, I inspected the cv-axel on the driver’s side and discovered the boot that protected the cv-joint was bad. In short, the axel needed to be replaced.
I put the front end of the car up on jackstands, took the front wheel off along with the axel nut, removed all necessary components, and crawled under the front of the car with a prybar. The procedure indicated that all I needed was to pry the unit from the transmission. I worked on this for about 30 minutes and no matter what I did, I could not get the axel to release from the transmission.
Well, in frustration, I almost quit. My only option was to put everything back together and take it to the shop, which I did not want to do. So, I gave it one more attempt. I continuously turned the axel a few degrees and gave it a pry with the bar. After several attempts, it popped right out. I replaced the axel and everything was fine, saving a large repair bill.
The moral of the story is this. Often, we quit doing things when we do not see immediate results. Yet if we would just continue to do the right things the right way, we would eventually achieve success. The only way to fail at anything is to quit before succeeding. This is the principle that Paul presented at the end of his exhortation for believers to sow to the Spirit.
Paul stated, “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Quitting is easy while being steadfast is often difficult. However, it is the steadfast in sowing to the Spirit who will ultimately reap a great harvest.
Consider the farmer for a second. If the farmer gives up, following the sowing of the seed by not tending to the field, he will end up with a depleted harvest. If he totally ignores or abandons the field, any fruit will rot and perish. We whom God has called to sow the seed must continue with the work even when we do not see the fruit of our labor.
We should be encouraged and inspired to keep on sowing to the Spirit, since the word tells us that there will be a harvest of righteousness for those who faint not in doing good. Here too there are two sides of this, this life and that in eternity.
We often want to see the immediate results of our efforts for the Lord. I can definitely speak of this after serving in various ministry positions for many years. Often, the Lord blesses in His time. We work, we preach, we teach and yet, the seed sown in the heart and mind does not seem to blossom for some time. Yet His word does not return void.
Moreover, even if we never see a harvest in this life, the Lord is still working in us and through us by His Spirit. There have been many missionaries who He used to open up new fields around the world, who maybe saw few or even no one come to saving faith. Yet it is those that followed who were blessed to reap the harvest. The Lord stated it, “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”” (John 4:37–38, ESV)
When believers are led by the Spirit there is a natural manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit emulating from their lives. It is evident that this emulation is the glorious light of the gospel radiating out from them in every area of life. We often disregard how vital this is and how much the Lord is doing in all of us as we walk by the Spirit. Every person we encounter, those with whom we interact come in contact with the life of Jesus in us as we live by His Spirit.
Thus, I am absolutely convinced that the Lord is accomplishing much more for eternity through us than we can possibly imagine. We will not see the fulness of the Lord’s harvest accomplished through Spirit filled believers until that grand and glorious day when we leave the temporal and enter heaven.
So, until that day, “as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” For a day is coming when we will see the awesome ways the Lord worked in us and through us when we did not even realize it.
Renewing the Heart 