SOWING and REAPING

 

MAY 26, 2023

Luke 6:38

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

 

Galatians 6:7

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

 

 

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

 

Luke, a follower of Jesus writes, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

There are moments in our life, see if you agree, when your agenda is interrupted by a family member or friend who is having a difficult time. Perhaps you are not having the easiest of time either, you are tired, your energy is low. Yet, you let go of your needs and offer yourself to this person. It is a time for consoling. It is a time for understanding them. It is a time to offer love. While you perhaps did not welcome, initially at least, the interruption. You offered what the person needed, to be consoled, to have an experience of being understood, to be in a space where love abounded.

This whole line of the prayer from St. Francis can be linked to the above passage in Luke 6:38 regarding sowing and reaping. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

Galatians 6:7 says, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

I find myself as I write this, bothered by the question “What are you planting, and what are you reaping in your life right now Darrell?”

Take a moment and think about what you are sowing and reaping in your life as well.

It might help to ask the following,

Do you find people are understanding toward you? 

Do you find people are consoling you? 

Do you find people loving toward you?

If they are, you are reaping the benefits of these scriptures. You are receiving the fruit from the seeds you have been sowing.

“The amount you give 

will determine the amount you get back.”