Seed to Plant – Bread to Eat
Reading: 2 Corinthians 9; Psalm 28
9 As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.” 10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. (2 Corinthians 9:9–10 NLT)
Paul says that God provides seed for the farmer and bread to eat! Most of us don’t get big bags of wheat or barley seed and store it in our barns until planting time so we can take it to the field and plant it. We mostly work with money! And through the use of electronic deposits and debit cards and online payments, we often don’t see or handle the money at all. It’s just numbers on a screen!
The way we receive and use our money can sometimes make it difficult to keep in mind how God sees our money and other resources.
Paul says that the money we receive is like a harvest of grain. God gives us these big bags of grain and entrusts it to us to use it well and wisely. But just as the farmer with 100 bags of grain has to remember that part of it is to make bread, or to sell, or to enjoy for his own use, part of it is seed to be planted carefully in good soil for the next harvest season!
Part of everything we receive is to make our bread to eat. It’s ours. It’s to be used to meet our needs! But don’t forget that part of everything we receive is seed for the next harvest. It’s ours to give. It’s our seed to plant through generous giving, sowing it into the needs of others, sowing it into the good soil of God’s Kingdom!
God gives seed for the farmer to plant and bread for the farmer to eat! Don’t eat the seed!
Prayer:
Father, Thanks for the detail and the memorable illustrations Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 to help us get this truth clear in our minds and hearts and simple and consistent in our practice! May my friends and I be good farmers who enjoy the bread you give us to eat, and may we always plant the seed you give us to sow. May we plant good seed in good soil for a great harvest! Amen!