A Plentiful Harvest Is Waiting For You!

“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)


Imagine, if you will, that you inherited a large acreage and while out walking one day in a secluded area you stumble upon a vast gold mine spilling its wealth into a nearby river. The gold has been accumulating for many centuries and the riverbanks are overflowing into hillsides of gold for mile after mile. The land belongs to you so you can take as much of the gold as you want. You need only mine the gold and carry it away to be redeemed into ready cash. Your wealth is limited only by how much work you are willing to put into the mining the gold. If you are a lazy person, you will benefit very little from your treasure because you will not put much work into mining your gold. If you are a hard worker, you will become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams because you will work at mining the gold from sunrise to sunset.

The Lord has given each one of us our very own vast gold mine.  We are limited only by how much work we put into mining the gold. The gold is symbolic of our spiritual life. The treasures of the spirit are very plentiful but we must work to redeem the wealth. The value of earthly gold does not even begin to compare with the value of the spirit. If we are rich in the spirit we have an eternal universe of wealth now and always.

Each one of us can access the wealth of the spirit by doing the Lord’s work. The Lord has called each one of us to labor His harvest. We need only do the work He has given us to do. We must pray, we must live by scripture, we must do God’s will, and we must help others to discover their treasure. We can start working the harvest at any point during our lifetime but the sooner we start working the sooner we can become wealthy.

As laborers of the harvest, we must in our own unique way work in the Lord’s service. A singer can join a church choir or Christian band and sing for the Lord. An actor or actress can act in a play or film that has a Christian based theme. A writer can write a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, a book, or a lengthy novel to spread the Lord’s message to those who are in need. A cook can prepare a meal for the needy at a Christian mission for the homeless. A physician can heal those who have no money free of charge in the Lord’s service at a Christian hospital. A nurse can join the Red Cross. A lawyer can work pro bono through a church in the ghetto as a service to the Lord. A college student can write term papers with a Christian message, give a thought provoking speech on oppression and injustice, and volunteer or do field work for a worthy cause in a Christian charity based organization. Even a recovering alcoholic can share how the Lord’s goodness has helped him or her to achieve sobriety and to learn how to live a life of love and service to others. The key to working in the Lord’s service is that we work to help others without seeking a just reward for our own self. By turning away from our own profit we become wealthy in the Lord and He rewards us with plenty. As time goes by we identify less with the ego and we identify more with the Lord. By turning away from our weak ego based identity we develop a strong individual identity in the Lord. It is the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to behold.

The rewards of a rich spirit life are plentiful indeed. A person who is rich in the spirit is wealthy in patience, understanding, kindness, and humility, and has a desire for goodness and truth. The Lord God loves those who are rich in the spirit and He will make His Home with those whom He loves. The Lord God will always bless and protect those that he loves. If you stumble and fall down while in the Lord’s service the Lord will help you back up. If you become confused, the Lord will provide clarity. If you are in danger, the Lord will show you the way to safety.

As parents, we can work in the Lord’s service to help our children to access the richness of the spirit by praying with them, reading Bible stories with them, attending church as a family, and doing work with our children that benefits others–baking a pie for a church fund raiser, taking a home cooked meal to an elderly shut-in, or cleaning the home of a disabled person. We can also inspire our children to become missionaries by doing Christian art work that they can give to friends and relatives, through drama as they perform for an audience at church  in a Christmas or Easter play, and by encouraging our children to invite their friends to attend special fun church activities during holidays and other events. As parents, we can support our teenagers efforts to help others as they join clubs through their high school or church that work on worthwhile projects in their local communities or in foreign lands–we can encourage our teens as they volunteer to read to the elderly at the local nursing home or as they volunteer to  travel to Mexico during spring break to help build houses for poor.

There is no need for anyone to live as a pauper when the Lord has already given each one of us a plentiful harvest. All you need do is give your miserable life to the Lord and He will give you a magnificent life limited only by your own efforts.

God Bless You Always. Sharen