Seed, Food, Rain and Gladness

UV 2024/10000 Seed, Food, Rain and Gladness

Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
Act 14 v 17

This uni-verse testifies that the Lord has done good unto us. He has given us evidence or witness of His extreme love. The rain from heaven is a metaphor for all the amazing blessings, gifts and grace He has showered upon us. We need to be intensely thankful for the “rain” He has sent upon us. If such rain was not sent by the Lord, our lives would have been full of thorns and thistles or pain and barrenness. But by sending His showers of blessing in response to our faith, our obedience and prayers, He has filled our fields or our lives with fruitful trees. The first shower of blessings we receive are to soften the ground or our hearts and to soften the seed so that the tiny roots spring out. The second rain of blessings is to ripen the fruit or to bring us to maturity in Christ. Seasons of fruitfulness refers to times of good results,of productivity and creativity. He brings us in due time into seasons of fruitfulness or seasons of love, peace, joy, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, patience and for the exercise of self control. Once we receive the mustard seed of faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord into our hearts, the seeds of greatness are also sown in us by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual fruit we bear are the evidence of the Lord working in our lives for He is known as the Lord of the harvest. The quality of the fruit is more important than the quantity. Sowing is a season or time of building hope, faith, love. Weeding is a time of disciplining. Harvesting is a time for joy. TImely blessings and answers to prayer are the rain that comes in season.

When the Lord reigns in our hearts, our bodies become the kingdom, the church, the temple of God. When He reigns He feeds our hearts with joy, love and peace in abundance. As Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of the Father.” Food as we know are of different types: protein to build our bodies, carbohydrates to provide energy, minerals and vitamins needed for metabolism. Similarly, the spiritual food that our hearts feed on consists of the promises of the Lord that are the protein to build our faith, the psalms and songs of praise are the carbohydrates that fill us with enthusiasm or the energy of the Lord, the teachings and examples of the biblical leaders and prophets are the fruit and vegetables that furnish us which supply us with the spiritual vitamins and nutrients for strength, vigour. In order to be spiritually healthy we need to have a balanced diet every day. A sign of good spiritual health is a sense of inner joy and peace or gladness.

Every farmer keeps a portion of the wheat and grain harvested as seed to sow in the next season of sowing. Similarly, we need to reserve part of the food we are given, the blessings we have received and use it to sow into the kingdom, in the hearts and lives of people in need. The Lord will use that seed, the words we have spoken or the acts of grace and mercy we have undertaken to provide fruitful seasons in their lives. At different stages of our lives, the enemy plants weeds among the seed. We need to find these weeds and uproot them before they outgrow the fruitful plants. The weeds can be in the form of distraction, worry, fears, lack of enthusiasm for the work of the Lord.


Prateep V Philip