Rejoice in Your Giving

by Bill Krause

For many of us, on more than one occasion, we have thought that the good things we have done in life are for naught.  We have laid down our life and helped people, only to be unappreciated, to be kicked in the teeth.  We gave our all, we gave it in love.  Our motivation was to help them, to see them come to a better place.

The reality is that when we do our giving we do not always receive the intended return we were planning on.

2 Corinthians 9:7
So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.  

God wants us to be cheerful givers, to give as we purpose.  If we do not purpose to give and give cheerfully when we do give, we create a potential to destroy our harvest.

In Galatians 6:7, God tells us through Paul the apostle, “Do not be deceived.  God is not mocked.  For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”  What God is saying here is that if we will sow a seed, God has set a system in place that ensures that we will harvest the same crop that we sowed.

God has a system that everything reproduces after its own kind.  When we sow, we reap.  What we sow, we reap.  The principle is true throughout all of time.

If we take time to think about an apple seed, we can learn a lot of truth.  One apple seed not thrown away, but planted in the ground produces an apple tree, even if the ground is not the best.  Why?  Because God is not mocked, and an apple produces a seed, the seed planted grows into a tree; the tree grown produces a rich abundance of bushels of apples.  A harvest is guaranteed when you follow the process through.

Now consider what would have happened if the seed that became the tree had not been planted.  There would have been no carrier, to tool, no producer of the bushels of apples.  NO harvest to rejoice about.  No additional seeds planted to produce additional harvest.  The seed has to be planted to begin the progressive process all over again.

Now let’s take another look at the process.  So the seed has been planted, the tree begins to grow.  The tree grows taller, fuller and more majestic in stature.  Buds begin to show up all over the tree.  The sad note is that the one who sowed the seed is now coming in to uproot the tree with a bulldozer.  The beautiful tree that you planted is now being destroyed by the one who planted it.  Forbidding the tree to bear fruit, you stop the bountiful harvest from coming forth.  You then bring your planting to fruitlessness destroying the very thing that was designed to bring you blessing.

Now think of the time that you planted good seed, a purposed, cheerful seed of cash; a kind, unselfish act in the life of a person in need.  You planted with a right heart but the recipient did not appreciate the seed sown. You lose heart, you murmur about your seed, you tear up your tree and eliminate your harvest. 

No matter the response of the ground you sowed into, you will reap in due season if you faint not.  No matter what my circumstances, what I feel or see the harvest is working mightily for me, the sower. 

Never be discouraged by the reaction of the receiver of your seed.  God is not mocked.  Let the harvest come forth that God intended from the seed.  It is good, it is bountiful, it if for you, the sower. You planted the good seed and you will receive the good harvest if you do not destroy the production process that you set in motion.