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This week's focus: Obedience

One of our greatest privileges as Christians is sharing the gospel. Unfortunately, only some regularly share their faith. There are many reasons for this: fear of failure, fear of what others will think, overthinking it—and so on. Hopefully, the following illustration will motivate you to become a joyful seed planter.

Years ago, I decided I wanted a vegetable garden. My husband graciously got an area in our backyard ready, then entrusted me with the planting. While I was meticulously placing each seed in its row, separated by 4 to 6 inches, my daughter was bugging me to let her help. To keep her quiet, I gave her a packet of watermelon seeds and told her to plant them somewhere in the backyard but not in my garden. Happy to have been given this assignment, she started flinging them all along the back fence area of our yard. She did it joyfully and didn’t fret over the placement, location, or result. She just did what I told her to do.

Every day after that, we would water the garden but didn’t see any evidence of life. Then one miraculous morning, right when I started to think I must have bought faulty seeds or there was an “operator error” and I should give up on gardening, to my surprise, I saw little green plants sprouting. It was a miracle! I was so happy that all I had to do was place a seed in the ground, and now a plant was growing. Then I looked to where my daughter planted and saw an even greater miracle—a field of watermelons! My daughter planted as many seeds as possible, and her efforts were rewarded exceedingly, abundantly beyond all we could imagine.

I made a list of what I learned and how it applies to sharing the gospel:

• Plant a lot of seeds! Tell as many people as possible, and then allow God to take it from there. We don’t have the power to make something grow, but we do have the power to plant.

• Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Just be obedient and leave the results up to God, knowing He is the One who causes the growth. There are joy and blessings in obedience, and even if they refuse to receive what you are sharing, you will have peace in your heart doing the will of your Heavenly Father.

• Planting seeds doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it. God made it so simple that even a little child can understand it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

One day, we will rejoice in the fruits of our labor. It was a glorious day for my daughter to see so many watermelons, all because she planted seeds. What an honor to be on God’s gardening team and share the joy of seeing many people in eternity because we were faithful in planting.

by: Jennifer McAlister, Communications, My Faith Votes