Sleeping and Rising... Sleeping and Rising...

I have never been interested in farming or gardening.   I personally have not found the joy in those things, but I am grateful for those who do.   Though Agriculture is not something I am interested in as an occupation, the wonder of it is intriguing to me.

In Mark 4:26-31 we see how Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of God to a farmer planting a field.

Mark 4:26 And He said, The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground.  (27) And then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and increases – he knows not how. (28) The earth produces (acting) by itself – first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. (29) But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth (the reapers) and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.

We are all familiar with the mustard seed verse, and I am sure at some point you have heard of how Jesus uses parables to discuss the kingdom of God.  This time, as I was reading these verses, I kept thinking how it all comes back to faith. 

Faith to me is like the rain that the farmer needs to nourish his seeds into crops; and faith is what we need to allow God to nourish us into mature Christians.

In the first verse of Mark 4, verse 26 Jesus is saying that a farmer will spread his seed upon the ground.   I believe this is like us.  God will spread His seed, the word, on us.  We will be around people who speak of God, about God or we might even read about God ourselves, but that doesn’t mean our faith has come to completion, or has matured in Him.

Verse 27 we see that the farmer walks away from the seeds that he has thrown on the ground.  The farmer rests, and allows the earth to do its job to nurture, fertilize and grow the seeds that he has spread.    The farmers hope, desire and faith, is that the seeds will produce a harvest.    

You see that there is  a period of time that goes by, and the time is not mentioned.  There is no mention of the period of time and how long it is before the farmer sees the results of his planting.

This is, I believe, where we get into trouble, well at least I do.  The waiting, oh my, the waiting! 

This is the time where the enemy hits you hard.  This is when satan and his demons are asking you where’s God now?  What happened to the promises God has given you?  Why hasn’t anything happened?  God doesn’t love you?   These are just some of the things that satan tries to throw at me, while I am waiting for my harvest.

If we look back to verse 27 we will see what the farmer did, he continued sleeping and rising, sleeping and rising.  It says he did this night and day while the seed sprouts, grows and increases.  This is exactly what we are to be doing as well.

When we are in the waiting period, just as the farmer, we are to continue our lives as they were, before the promise was given, the prayer was prayed or the seed was planted.   Jesus doesn’t give us a set period of time here, because it’s going to be different for everyone and everything, but the behavior, the act of faith remains the same.

I really enjoy the last statement in verse 27, he knows not how.  The farmer doesn’t know how the seeds are flourishing, he just knows, believes, has faith that they are.  This for me is beyond difficult!!

That statement in verse 27, I believe refers to reasoning, understanding, allowing our minds to wander, to come up with a plan of attack or a solution to the situation.   This is where I allow the enemy into my mind, and where I need to do my strongest battle.  

We know that God works in ways we will never understand, even if He was to explain how everything worked and came together, we still wouldn’t understand.  Why is that? Because He is God.  His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. 

God works in the dark, in secret, and then reveals things to us in the light.  Just like the seeds that are being cultivated under the earth, in the dark, God is working for you in the dark, in His secret places.  

Though we want to know, we need not know.

This is extremely hard for me to let go of, and I fail miserably at this every single day!  I am a person who has control issues, stemming from my abusive childhood, so asking to trust someone, even God, is hard for me, but what’s harder is asking me to not understand how, when, where or why!

My faith grows in the not knowing.  My faith and trust grows in the times of the unanswered why, when, how, why or where.   In those times, God is asking me to just have faith in Him, and His word. 

To simply believe. 

And while that statement brings joy and hope to my heart, when I am faced with the challenge of just believing, and not trying to understand reason, or resolve the situation in my own way, I am in fear and circling my emotions, with the loss of control.

But we see what happens to the farmer in verse 28.  The earth produces by itself!  The earth produces, and produces to completion.  The seed first becomes a blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.   Jesus is the earth in this verse.  Jesus produces, just as the earth has produced. 

Jesus took the seed, of His word and planted it into the heart of His child, us, and then produced a harvest from that seed.   This harvest can look like many things.  This harvest can be anything from a job, to healing, to wisdom, to patience, to a relationship repaired.   A harvest always looks different, feels different, and comes at different times, but a harvest is always delivered when you stand in faith that He will deliver on His word, or His seed.

Our relationship with God is often compared to the cultivation of a seed, from the farmer’s hands the seed travels and then returns back to the farmer’s hands in form of a harvest.  

We are daily filled with the word (seed) of God.  We are fed, nourished, ripened, fertilized and harvested from the words of God, and that’s how He intended it to be.

He intended for us to not see His work before us, but to keep His words before us, in us and on our lips.  We don’t need to know how the seed brings forth a harvest, all we need to know, is that it will!

I don’t need to know how God is going to deliver on His promises; all I need to know is that He will!  He will deliver because, I have faith in Him.  I have faith, that the Man I know, in my heart, in my mind and in my Bible, is a Man who cannot lie.  He is a Man who cannot mislead; He is a Man who will not mislead me. 

When I take the time to learn about the character traits of Jesus, of God and of the Holy Spirit, I am setting myself free from reasoning, controlling and handling every facet of my life.  I am acting like the farmer and I am sleeping, rising, sleeping, rising and know not how He does it, but just that He will!