Keep Plowing
Proverbs 20:4 NKJV
The lazy man will not plow because of winter;
He will beg during harvest and have nothing.
I actually do know a thing or two about plowing. Well, it's plowing using a rototiller. As a skinny fourteen-year-old, my father assigned me the task of using a rototiller he borrowed from our neighbor to have me plow up a large garden. The rototiller was a gas engine tool with two plowing wheels up front that would break up the ground. I hated that machine. It was big and possessed by the devil. It dragged me all over that garden, and it was right then that I made a vow to myself that upon reaching adulthood, I would never go near a garden again or touch a rototiller.
I have kept my vow. But there is one thing I left out. In our family garden, we planted tomatoes and corn, and a few other vegetables. I don't know of too many things that taste better when harvested straight from the garden than corn and tomatoes. So my plowing did produce good things. Plowing with the rototiller was hard, but it did produce wonderful results.
Our verse for today has application, even though many of us do not have agricultural experience. The principle is that the person who does not plow because it's winter and it's cold is going to lack when harvest comes. Doing hard things or uncomfortable things is necessary if we want to see a harvest. The proverbs call the person who will not do the hard things lazy. I know that 'lazy' is a word that can cause people to bristle. I get it. No one likes to think of themselves as lazy. And many good people are hardworking on their jobs, with their families, serving in the church or in their communities. But there is a spiritual application.
Are we doing what may be hard or uncomfortable spiritually? There are times when reading the Bible or getting quiet before the Lord is not easy. Our flesh and the demands of a busy schedule can be pushing us to get going. But spiritual plowing is necessary. We all want the harvest of peace and joy that comes from the Lord. Sowe must spend time with Him. Prayer can feel like plowing. Reading and meditating on scripture can feel like plowing. But easy does not mean better. Whoever said the Christian life was an escape from reality, and people looking for the easy way have never lived the Christian life. We live in a world that has a current that flows against us. Our flesh nature does not like the cold or the hard and uncomfortable. But if we are armed with the mindset that doing spiritually hard things produces a marvelous, eternal harvest in our lives, we can persevere.
Keep plowing. Keep praying. Keep reading and feeding on God's Word. Keep living for God. And a wonderful harvest will be yours here in this life and the one to come.