“Sow for yourselves
righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to
seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12
NKJV)
“I said, ‘Plant the
good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the
hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may
come and shower righteousness upon you.’ (Hosea 10:12NLT)
“You have plowed and
plotted wickedness, you have reaped the [willful] injustice [of oppressors],
you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your [own] way
and your chariots, in the multitude of your mighty men,” (Hosea 10:13 AMP)
We’re told to plow the ‘hard ground of our hearts’, in other
words, our hearts are hardened and in order to soften our hearts; we need to seek GOD and sow mercy for others. The
Bible is filled with references of ‘sowing’ and ‘reaping’ and some of Jesus’
most famous parables used examples of sowing. The verse above uses the Hebrew
word, ‘zara’, which means: to sow, to scatter
seeds; to plant seed in order to increase the returns; to disseminate. “Do not
be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also
reap.” (Galatians 6:7 NKJV) There are several sayings today that follow that scripture, 'you get what you give' concept, or 'sowing' and 'reaping'. If you give 'love' you will receive 'love', if you give 'bad things' you will receive 'bad things'.
Mercy is when someone does something and deserves a
punishment, but we reward them with mercy. Mercy shows, even though, someone gave us 'bad things', we can show 'mercy' by responding with 'good things'. Everyday we have opportunities to show mercy: like when your
child does something that might normally get them grounded, you offer more leniency or if your spouse upsets you, instead of responding in your usual fashion, you
might overlook the matter. Because GOD
gave us mercy, we need to show mercy to others. We can never do anything good enough to earn our way to heaven, through GOD's son, is the only way we can achieve GOD's righteousness. “We are made right with God by
placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes,
no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s
glorious standard. Yet God, with
undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ
Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” (Romans 3:22-24 NLT
In verse Hosea 10:13 (above), our sin is the belief of self-sufficient strength and wisdom. One of the hardest things is to give up control, because giving up
control means giving up of power. Sometimes we get stuck on ‘if I want it done right, I have to do it myself’. When I turned in my resignation, I took pride
(major sin alert) because so many people said that they needed me, that the
business wouldn’t run without me, etc. I was the type of person, who
multi-tasked, did so many things at once, and boasted about it (another sin). I
also took on so many responsibilities that it was draining me, and I was
putting my work above all other things in my life (yet another sin). This is
why I caution people who go around saying, “God won’t give you more than you
can handle", because people are taking control and taking on more than they can handle. We are the
ones taking on the extra burdens and then believing GOD is the one giving us
these extra responsibilities and problems – Do not be deceived, that is a lie
the devil wants you to believe! So next
time, you’re asked to do something (even if it’s a ‘good thing’), don’t say yes
(or no) right away, pray about it, make sure it won’t distract you from what
GOD has planned for you. When we seek
GOD’s will for our lives, we are giving control to HIM. When we stay in GOD’s
will, we are staying on the path and purpose HE has for us, “We can make our own plans, but the Lord
gives the right answer. Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will
succeed. We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” (Proverbs
16:1,3,9 NLT)
Faith is an action, faith is stepping out, it wasn’t just
that people ‘believed’; it was when they ‘spoke’ or made a ‘movement’- once you
believe, show you believe. “You see, his faith and his actions worked
together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the
Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because
of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown
to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.” (James 2:22-24
NLT) Faith is believing that
even though we see the circumstances surrounding us, we are not worried, because
GOD will see us through. Faith is giving
up control, letting go and letting GOD. Faith is losing our pride and
acknowledging that we don’t know what to do and we need GOD to help us through.
Faith is saying, I was wrong GOD, I made a mistake in taking on this (even if
done with good intentions), I need you to help me get back to the path you have
for me, not the path I want for me. “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek
his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs
3:5-6 NLT).
GOD sowed love and mercy with HIS Son, and as HIS children we reap HIS righteousness. We can come to GOD with tears of sorrow, repentance
and shame, yet, no matter what we’ve done, HE forgives us and loves us. HE allows HIS children to reap something far greater than we would have been able to sow, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs
of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs
of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:5-6 NIVUK)