People are endlessly interesting to me. Everyone is going through something. Inside of every person is a whole story that most people don’t know anything about, but for that person it is the most important story they know. One of the things that often surprises me is that so many people do not connect their choices and actions with what happens later. For all of you Bible students, this connection of actions and outcomes is called “the principle of sowing and reaping” or as we will hear in today’s Scripture, “You harvest what you plant.” Let’s consider closely what the Bible says about this very practical principle, as we consider what Paul wrote to Christians who lived in a place called Galatia:

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. (Galatians 6:7-10 NLT)

In this passage, we read a warning against deceiving ourselves. Why do we need to be warned? Because many of us actually believe that we can plant one thing in life and something different will grow. We imagine that we can get away with doing things that God doesn’t like, thinking that we won’t have to experience any consequences from our actions. The Bible warns us that this isn’t true. It says that when we do this we are mocking God and that God’s justice cannot be mocked. We harvest whatever we plant. All of us know this is true in the natural world. We know that if we plant corn, apples will never grow. We know that if we plant cucumbers, watermelons will never grow. The seeds we plant are what’s going to come up. Many of us see this in the natural world but don’t realize it’s equally true in the spiritual world. God has made His universe to operate with the same principle: what we plant we harvest. If we plant unkindness, we’ll harvest unkindness. If we plant selfishness, we’ll harvest selfishness. If we use bitter words, we’ll receive bitter words. But if we act in peace, we’ll receive peace. If we act in love, we’ll receive love. If we plant joy, we’ll have a harvest of joy. Are you dissatisfied with what’s happening in your life? Remember, what you are harvesting may be the result of what you have planted. If you want to harvest differently, you’ll have to begin to plant differently.

Remember, God will not allow His justice to be mocked. Whatever you plant is what you’re going to get…so, if we plant goodness, we will harvest goodness, and that’s very Good News!