Thought for today Friday 22 January

Galatians 6 v7-9 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.    I heard an interesting analogy in relation to today’s scripture reading and that was: ‘should a father give a child everything it asks for?’.  Surely, we would all agree that the answer to this question from any responsible father should be ‘no’ or at the very least ‘not always’.  Some may say that they have prayed to God, but God has ignored them.  Don’t you think it may just have been for similar reasons that the child’s father did not accede to every child’s request?  Serving God in this life may involve praying to Him, reading the bible, telling others about Him, confessing our sins to Him through His Son, doing things for others and many other things He would approve of.  All these things can be viewed as ‘planting’ for God’s harvest.  To use another obvious analogy, the more the farmer or gardener plants, the greater will be his harvest. The responsible father while denying his child’s request may suggest things that the child may do (chores, show an improvement in school work, help a neighbour etc.) that could lead to them to getting what they were asking for in the first place.  I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that God may do the very same. Before we ask God to something for us, maybe we should be asking if we are doing enough for Him.