November 29th: I Am The Bread of Life
The Sower, The Seed, & The Harvest
by Delana
My youngest child, sweet Wyatt, is a habitual food snatcher. When one of his three older siblings isn’t looking, he will slip his little hand over to their pile of whatever yummy snack they might be enjoying, and he will take a little from their stash. It’s not even that he is a fast eater. He will still have one or two of his own treats left, but as he sees his pile growing low, he usually thinks it would be a good idea to scrounge for more. What he doesn’t realize is that I have a well-stocked snack pantry. Fruit snacks, apple sauce, pretzels galore! Wyatt could ask me, and I could give him so many snacks that his tummy would ache from being so full. So what makes him a food snatcher? Why would he take from their pile and, without a second thought, pop their food in his mouth without asking ME for more?
I have never had a lack of food in my pantry, but I do know what it’s like to be on empty spiritually. 10 years ago, I was turning to so many different “snack piles” to scrounge up something for my soul. Shopping, sugary sweets, and Netflix galore! I was living far from my family, I had seen several young children I cared about die suddenly, and I also became a new mom. In my loneliness and sadness, I did not turn to the One who could give me all that I need. As a result, I kept coming up on empty and had nothing to give in the ministry I was doing. I had no “seeds” to sow.
As I returned to the basics of what I knew about following Jesus—prayer, Bible reading, true fellowship AND honest, vulnerable confession with other believers and with God—I started slowly becoming fuller again. It wasn’t an automatic process, but He began to retrain my mind to lean on Him in my time of need. To ask HIM when I needed bread. He is the Great, Sufficient Provider. He is the one I can run to when I feel empty or lacking. HE rescued me from myself.
This whole chapter of 2 Corinthians 9 is about generosity, but I love verse 10 about God’s generosity. Isn’t that right that we have nothing to give without our Great Father giving to us first? HE gave His very best—withholding nothing. God with us, Emmanuel. He sent Jesus. In Jesus, now the impossible becomes possible.
We all want our lives to mean something. We all want to have fruit from our labor. But it’s incredible that because of this promise in verse 10, because we are in Christ, we do not just receive a small amount from our work. When we give what God gave us in the first place BACK to Him, HE MULTIPLIES IT! It’s impossible math! He increases the harvest of what we have sown in our obedience to Him (righteousness) to make us more fruitful than we could ever be on our own. What a thrill to serve this King!
As we celebrate and remember the coming of Jesus to earth, what is our response to this generous God? Jesus said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15). This is the verse I’ve been quoting over and over again in my heart lately. This includes material things, but I think it’s safe to say it’s about our time, our resources, and our attention as well.
So I want to leave you with some questions:
What are we trying to keep for ourselves?
Are we investing into things that multiply?
Are we in the cycle of God’s math, or like me and little Wyatt, are we trying to build our piles high with things that will ultimately leave us empty?
In what way is God asking you to obey, so that you will see the miracle math with your own eyes?
Father, thank You for Your extravagant generosity to us. Thank You for sending Jesus. Give us wisdom to sow into the things that will multiply with everlasting ripples in Your Kingdom. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.