“In the morning, sow your seed, and at evening, withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” Ecclesiastes 11:6
We must sow, without knowing, for sure, whether or not what we’ve sown will prosper. That’s just the way it works. We don’t get to know everything ahead of time. We have to trust and believe. We have to take steps of faith – with no guarantee. After all, we don’t always get what we desire – nor should we. Because we don’t always know what’s best, we must trust God to say “yes” when the answer should be yes and “no” when the answer should be no. But that shouldn’t keep us from sowing. That truth can’t keep us from trying.
For those of us who lean toward the “control freak” end of the spectrum, there is a big part of us that just wants all the information up front, thank you very much. Then we know how best to proceed – without wasting “our” time. And this would be perfectly fine, I suppose, if our only objective in life was pain free perfection. But this isn’t our only goal. There is our sanctification, and growth in Christ-likeness to consider. These require success, as well as failure. They also require faith and patience.
In the Christian life we work, plow, sow – and then we trust the harvest to the Lord. This goes for every dimension of life. Think about it this way – over the last 12 months, has anything amazing happened in your life that you didn’t see coming? This is possible because it is God, not us, who is in control. Many of the most rewarding experiences of my life were not on my goal list – but they were on God’s. My point is – God determines what prospers in our lives. Not us. He gets to know everything ahead of time. Not us. There’s a great deal of peace to be found in this reality. So let’s just trust Him, shall we?
