Cultivating Holiness in Our Harvest

Examining Scripture:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.”
Romans 12:1

Evaluating Soil:

Walk to your mirror. Look into your eyes. Consider the person you are in this season—not who you were, or the way you want to be, but who you are today.

What condition is your field of life in? Do you find it acceptable? Would God?  Are you living:

• in shape or out of shape?
• sacrificially or selfishly?
• holy or unholy?
• acceptably or unacceptably?

Are you in need of food to make your soil more spiritually fertile? Do you need to weed unnecessary things from your ground? Does your present garden need pruned of dead things from your past?

To reap a harvest that is pleasing to our Creator, we must cultivate holiness and rid our gardens of the things that hinder that growth.

Experiencing Seasons:

I looked in the mirror recently and saw my Mom. It pricked my heart that the seasons of her life on earth have passed. In that moment, I realized that she not only left me here with her face, hands, attitude, perspective of life, good and bad traits, and treasured belongings, but with a spiritual heritage she planted in my soil at a young age.

Viewing her resemblance staring back at me, I knew I had two choices. I could neglect that heritage and let it die with her, or I could nurture it and keeping it growing. I may look and act like her, but I can’t live off of her holiness. It’s my season to live and present my body as a holy, living sacrifice that is acceptable to God.

Embracing Solace:

Lemons are a great example of life. They are bitter, but with other ingredients, they are tasty and useful in many ways. Life can be bitter too, but when we incorporate God’s ways into it, it becomes sweeter and easier to swallow.

Solace is lost when we try to reap fruit in our hearts, homes, and hospitality without holiness. We can’t displease God and produce holy fruit. Squeezing a beautiful harvest from our lives, even when mired down in mundane duties, can bring a comforting sense of peace.

Enjoying Simplicity:

Keeping our desired harvest in sight helps us stay on track. We complicate our growing process when we lose ourselves in our gardening work. By keeping our priorities simple and in order, spiritually and physically, we can produce a harvest that the Creator will be pleased with.

Employing Solutions:

As Christians we should never pursue producing anything in our lives at the cost of our holiness. When we leave that out, we leave God out.

To avoid an unholy harvest, we can cultivate:

• Remembering who we’re gardening for
• Focusing on quality over quantity
• Protecting our faith and fruitfulness
• Feeding our growth with:
• Prayer
• Bible Study
• Christian Fellowship
• Spiritual Endeavors

It’s never too late to start preparing our soil, tools, and resources to produce a great harvest. 

We may see some needed changes in the mirror today. It’s not too late to make lemonade with yesterday’s lemons and start cultivating those changes.

I am going to begin with checking for weeds in my heart.

Before we know it, spring will be here and tiny, bright, green buds will be sprouting in our gardens.

Bring It Home

How would you like to cultivate holiness in your harvest?

Praying for you as we grow together,
Smiles, BRC