July 18

There is unspeakable joy in serving the Lord by carrying the precious seed of the Truth of Heaven within our heart and by scattering that precious seed into the lives of those around us. We delight in praying that the Lord of the harvest will cause there to be an abundance of reaping from our sowing.

Yet, each of us has experienced the frustration of failure. It is heart wrenching when those with whom we’ve shared our faith dismiss our message of salvation in Christ as irrelevant to their lives. When we have invested ourselves in the eternal well-being of others, their rebuff of our efforts causes us great sorrow.

To what purpose has been our labor? To what gain have the lost been brought through our effort to share with them the joy of our salvation? We hang our heads and weep because of our inability to shed the light of the gospel of Jesus into the darkness of those who know Him not. But the Father has a word for us in our sadness. He has an encouraging future reality that He lovingly interjects into our present gloom.

In Psalm 126:5, 6 we are told, “They who sow in tears shall reap in joy; the one who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, carrying his sheaves with him.” He tells us that we must not despair when it seems our efforts are futile, for without a doubt, we shall be laden with the fruit of our labors! When He has sent the rain, and the sun has shined upon our seeds, they shall bloom—and we shall have the joy of reaping!