Monday nights I go to a great Bible Study. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. While we were studyinng Hosea, we came across a verse that spurred an interesting conversation. Do I (or you) have the "right" to have a bad day? Is it okay for us to react to our surroundings/circumstances? Or are we suppose to react only to God and who He says about us?
Hosea 10:12 says,
Sow with a veiw to righteousness,
Reap in accordance with kindness;
Break up your fallow ground
For it is time to seek the Lord
until He comes to rain righteousness on you.
Unpack that verse and wow! what a challenge. Everything I do should be done with a view (watching for the end product to be righteousness in my life and hopefully in the lives of those around me) to righteousness.
But what does it mean to "Reap in accordance with kindess"? Could it mean that I am to receive the comments and actions and circumstances impacting my life as though they are done in kindness -even when it doesn't seem like it on the outside? Could it mean that I have no excuse for what kind of day I am having because I choose how I react to the people around me? to the circumstances I find myself in? Imagine the Christ people would see if I didn't react to others but I reacted to what God said about me in His Word!
What if I really believed I can do what God says I can do (Phil 4:13); That I will be all God designed me to be (Gen 3, Ro 8:29-30); I am not struggling, I am more than a conqueror (Ro 8:37); I am not under the Circumstances, I am an overcomer (1 John 5); I am blessed (Eph 1:3); I am forgiven, redeemed and sealed; I believe all the promises of God....
Then I am suppose to "PLOW UP" my fallow ground. My friend Scott had interesting thoughts about doing this through prayer - in our own lives and in the lives of others. No matter what this looks like it certainly requires knowing what fallow ground is - in the parable of the sower it is the path - so hard that the seed can't take root. Farmers used to let ground fallow by plowing it up and then not seeding it. They would let the ground sit for a year - or growing season. What areas of my life have been left inactive and need plowing so that God can plant in me?
Until He comes to rain righteousness on me... I'm still pondering the implications of this one!
But what does it mean to "Reap in accordance with kindess"? Could it mean that I am to receive the comments and actions and circumstances impacting my life as though they are done in kindness -even when it doesn't seem like it on the outside? Could it mean that I have no excuse for what kind of day I am having because I choose how I react to the people around me? to the circumstances I find myself in? Imagine the Christ people would see if I didn't react to others but I reacted to what God said about me in His Word!
What if I really believed I can do what God says I can do (Phil 4:13); That I will be all God designed me to be (Gen 3, Ro 8:29-30); I am not struggling, I am more than a conqueror (Ro 8:37); I am not under the Circumstances, I am an overcomer (1 John 5); I am blessed (Eph 1:3); I am forgiven, redeemed and sealed; I believe all the promises of God....
Then I am suppose to "PLOW UP" my fallow ground. My friend Scott had interesting thoughts about doing this through prayer - in our own lives and in the lives of others. No matter what this looks like it certainly requires knowing what fallow ground is - in the parable of the sower it is the path - so hard that the seed can't take root. Farmers used to let ground fallow by plowing it up and then not seeding it. They would let the ground sit for a year - or growing season. What areas of my life have been left inactive and need plowing so that God can plant in me?
Until He comes to rain righteousness on me... I'm still pondering the implications of this one!
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