Sowing and Reaping

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain salvation upon you.

Hosea 10:12

The Word of God says, “They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).

The immutable law of “sowing and reaping” has held sway. Our world is now the unhappy residence of a harvest of moral depravity, and we seek in vain for a cure. The tares of indulgence have overgrown the wheat of moral restraint. All humanity is guilty. But each fraction of society seeks to place the blame upon others.

The Republicans blame Democrats; the Democrats blame the Republicans. The Communists accuse the Americans; the Americans accuse the Communists. Capital finds fault with labor; labor finds fault with capital. An old farmer in Indiana summed it up when he said, “The whole world situation is just a mess!”

But, as a minister of the Gospel, I am an optimist. The world problems are big, but God is bigger! If we will dare to take God into account, confess our sin, and rely unreservedly upon Him for wisdom, guidance, and strength, our world problems can yet be solved. There is yet time for bringing peace, but that time is brief. What we do, we must do quickly.

What have you done recently for God?

Our Father and our God, I come to You on behalf of my world. We have lost control of it, Lord, and we need Your help to save it. Show us how to restore morality and spirituality to our people. Show us how to bring our world to You. We need You, God, because You alone are bigger than the world’s problems. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).