Plant Your Promises

Do you have a promise God has given you? A dream that you know God put in your heart? What have you done with that promise?

Promises are like seeds. They don’t do anything if you just hold them in your hand, or worse–leave them in their packages. Seeds have to be planted. They have to be watered. They have to be tended. They have to be allowed to grow until they are ripe for harvest, and then they have to be harvested to receive the full benefit. If you feel that God has given you a promise, a calling, or a dream. It’s your job to plant that seed of promise, to water that seed with faith and obedience, and to harvest it once it’s fully grown. It’s your job to work with God to pull out any weeds that might be choking it and get rid of any rocks that might get in the way of its roots.

But planting and watering and harvesting and weeding are not the only things that have to occur for seeds to grow. The ground has to be prepared first. If you’ve received a promise from God, chances are He’s already begun the work of preparing you to receive that promise. We get promises at all stages of our lives. Sometimes the promise comes in the midst of chaos and turmoil in our lives. Then we KNOW that God is working on us, plowing up the soil of our hearts, and preparing us for something more. Sometimes the promise comes in the midst of what feels like barrenness and lack–the Winter season–and we have to trust God that that seed will last until the Spring thaw.

We have to work with God to become ready for His promise to spring up in our lives. We have to allow Him to do whatever He needs to do. We have to allow Him to plow up the soil of our hearts and prepare us. We have to work with Him to get rid of the rocks that get in the way of growth: things like bitterness, fear, pride, shame, etc. Then when we are ready, we have to plant our seed.

That’s the easy part, planting. You take hold of the promise. You let your imagination run wild with visions of the promise when it has come to pass and what your life will be like walking in that promise. It’s a bit like looking at the front of the seed package and imagining how beautiful your garden will look when the flowers are blooming or how wonderful those vegetables will taste once the harvest comes in. That’s the picture you hold on to through the roughest part of planting a seed of promise: the waiting.

Seeds don’t sprout up immediately. Any child whose done the science experiment with a bean can tell you it takes a long time for a seed to sprout. It feels like forever. You wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. You can’t see what that seed is doing. You can’t see anything at all. You feel as if that seed is no good, as if it might never grow. Maybe you got a bad seed. But God doesn’t give bad seeds. His promises are always “yes!” and “amen!” What we don’t think about when planting a seed is that within that little seed are all the things that that seed will need in order to sprout and grow and become what it’s meant to be. We can rest assured that if God has given us a seed of promise, He has also given us everything we need in order to see that seed sprout and grow. It will just take time…and it’s not our timing that matters. It’s God’s timing. God is the one who does the hidden work of making a plant grow. We don’t even know how seeds grow and develop in nature. How can we expect to understand what God is doing in the time while we’re waiting for our promise to come to pass?

We have to be careful what we plant in our gardens. You can’t sow seeds of discord, unforgiveness, deceit, unfaithfulness…and expect to reap a harvest of peace, love, trust, loyalty, etc. You can’t plant seeds of disobedience and expect your seed of promise to grow. You have to plant obedience to get that seed to grow the way God wants it to. You have to sow the things that bring blessings into your life. God has gifted us with favor in Christ. Use it!

And then it happens! Suddenly! Unexpectedly! Probably when you’re not even looking. The seed sprouts, and you begin to notice the work that God has been doing under the surface all this time. You start to see the pieces fall into place. Slowly and surely, that promise is ripening for harvest. And then it’s time for you to work again. You have to harvest the seed. You have to lay hold of the promise. You have to step out in faith. You have to DO something in order to bring the fullness of the promise into your life.

So do you have a seed of promise from God? Have you planted it by handing it to God, visualizing the fulfillment of the promise, holding onto it with faith, watering it with prayers and faith and whatever else God asks you to do to bring that promise to fruition? Are you waiting patiently while God works behind the scenes to bring it to pass? Are you obediently working with Him to remove the obstacles and hindrances that might be in your way? Have you reached out in faith, prepared to take hold of the fullness of that promise?

Whatever stage you’re in in the sowing/reaping process, I encourage you to wait well. To be patient. To trust in God. To hold firm to the fact that He has given you everything you need for that seed of promise to grow to fruition. Diligent work will yield an abundant harvest!