Don't be Afraid to Share God's Word

"He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good" (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6).

In Jesus' famous parable of the sower, He painted a picture of a farmer spreading seed. He explained that the seed being sown is illustrative of God's word. The soil on which the seed fell was a picture of man's heart. He went on to describe how the Word would or would not be effective in the hearts of the people who heard it.

I believe Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes parallel Jesus' teaching.

It is not up for us to decide whether a man's heart is good soil. Our responsibility—our encouragement—is to sow the seed regardless.

The farmer who is worried about the weather, that it will make spreading the seed ineffective, or will be a waste of time, he will never get up and sow. That farmer will likely have a very small crop. So too, the one who is overly concerned that the person hearing God's word will reject it, will keep his mouth shut and likely not see much spiritual fruit as a result.

But you don't know whether or not God's word will prosper; you don't know how God is working in a person's heart. Furthermore, it is not you who can do anything to control what fruit the word will produce in a person's heart just as a farmer is powerless to make a seed do anything but that which God has intended it to do. Man's heart is God's business, you are simply called to spread the seed.

"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:7).

My heart and prayer is that God's word would go out and be effective; that Christians would be more and more involved in the work of the Kingdom—sowing God's word with gentleness in the lives and hearts of men and women everywhere.