Where’s the Harvest, Part 2

On Monday I wrote a blog post for people who are wondering where their harvest is (If you missed it, catch-up here). I believe many of us are in a waiting period: waiting for healing, waiting for resources, waiting for that relationship to work out, just waiting for a harvest.

Last night while at a fundraiser to help kids during a family crisis, I realized I left out in the previous post that there is a different type of harvest that is more important than any tangible harvest we can imagine. I’ll get there in a minute. This organization (Safe Families for Children) exists to help children find refuge while their parents (or single parent) work out their immediate crisis. It’s an amazing alternative to the foster care system and much more financially efficient.

It came down to the stories shared. In one case a Safe Families host home served a single mother by taking in her twin boys while she secured a job and got on her feet. In another case, a Safe Families host home helped a teen girl get out of a dysfunctional and dangerous home environment and financially investing into her future. It occured to me while listening to their stories that unless we ask the right questions, we will seldom reach the right answer. I believe that if you are asking the right question, 50% of the problem is already solved. This is true for any context of life.

If you are asking the right question, 50% of the problem is already solved.

What is this harvest we are really seeking? What is the purpose of the harvest anyway? The question that really hit me though was this:

What harvest do you really need?

The reality of living in the west is that often our desire for harvest mainly includes some kind of material gain. Whether it’s money or something we can touch, taste, or smell, it’s usually something tangible that we want. To be clear – there’s nothing wrong with seeking a harvest. I don’t think a farmer plants seeds and is content with no harvest, he most definitely wants one. He lives in expectation that there will be a harvest!

But the greater question still exists in what harvest do you really need? The answer came to me quietly during that final moments of the dinner and it’s this: Righteousness

The greatest harvest we will ever need is righteousness and the harvest that we all long for as people. Yet, we often replace that inward God-given desire for an outward harvest of “stuff” (you fill in the blank).

Righteousness is simply right standing before God. It’s right standing before God because what Jesus did on the cross. Without the cross, there is no possible way to righteousness. Here are a few scriptures to help you sort out the only true harvest that really matters:

• “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6

• “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:17-18

• And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

So how to you get righteousness? Like Abram, believe God. As James says, sow peace. And as the Apostle Paul says, love Jesus.

The gospel isn’t complicated. The harvest isn’t far away, it’s near because of God who is at work by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord spoke through the prophet in Jeremiah 23:23- “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “And not a God far off? “Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?” declares the Lord “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

Like the Lord filled the heavens and the earth, he will fill your barns to overflowing and your heart with the righteousness it so yearns for. Your harvest is near if you simply ask the right question. The Lord is near to you in your trouble and in your victory. The harvest at righteousness isn’t something you need to work for, but it was freely given at the cross.

Will you accept it?