Farmer
2 Timothy 2:6
2 Timothy 2:6, The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Hardworking Partake/experience the first crop Patience/Hope Continuous Nurturing Harvesting the Souls Think beyond barriers Having lived in a rural, farming community in my early years, I have observed the patience of the farmers. You will be overwhelmed by the acres and acres of land that must be tended.
Unwavering Commitment
Farming is a way of a lifelong commitment. It is not a typical job, where you can give your two weeks’ notice and walk away.
When you farm, you are connected to a specific land, and you have invested in expensive equipment, a community, and oftentimes to previous generations of your family who have farmed before you. In other words, there is a deep-roots, big picture perspective required.
The farmer is covenanted to his work for a lifetime, and he works his land with the yearly harvest ever before him. Every investment in equipment, every decision regarding the precise planting time, every weed uprooted — all of it is done with the harvest in mind.
We are called to a lifelong commitment to the harvest, and this lifelong commitment is played out in everyday small acts of devotion. A lifelong commitment entails unrelenting hard work with brief moments of harvest. The opposite about the Christian life that short-term hard work would produce an unending harvest. Scripture never portrays the Christian life this way.
Farmers work hard. They diligently plough and plant, and they persistently irrigate the fields during the dry summer months. But in the end, they must wait for the harvest. In the end, they depend on God for growth. Farming our hearts for spiritual growth and faithfulness requires both investment and patience. Farmers don’t sit on their hands throughout spring and summer, hoping a few crops will pop up out of thin air. No, they work diligently toward the harvest. But they also know that they must wait patiently for the crops to take root, grow, and produce fruit.
They work and wait. And that’s the approach every believer is called to take.
James 5:7-8, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Farmer lives by Faith
Farming is backbreaking work, dirty work, detailed work, and, most of all, it is risky work. There aren’t any guarantees.
A few years ago, when the crop stood beautiful and bountiful in the fields, ready for harvest, a hurricane blew through and wiped it away entirely. All that labour, all that grime, all that waiting, for nothing.
What is the point? Why would we invest everything in a risky venture? We might ask this, thinking of our own lives and our own efforts to produce a spiritual harvest and have seemingly harvested nothing or been wiped out entirely.
The farmer looks at his failed crop as a tangible reminder that the harvest inevitably belongs to the Lord. The farmer must be faithful to lay the groundwork for the harvest, but the harvest cannot be forced. It can only happen through the Lord’s providence.
Cautious optimism as the harvest approaches each year, how at the last minute the weather can change, and how there is nothing he can do to protect his crop. He draws the
connection for me to the Christian life
It’s like parenting.
Parenting your kids over a long period of time, and there are little moments that show that you are on the right track. But you know that you won’t see the full reward until the end. Even though you may not see the reward that you want to see.
As in farming, however, there are steps you must faithfully take to get to the harvest. There are things that pop up in the growing season that aren’t helpful or what you want to see. We get rain that we don’t want on the crops. When it rains the crops look the worst. In the end, no matter what the crop looks like, we must trust God that he’s going to take care of us.
To focus on fruitfulness is a frustrating endeavour. To work in faith is all we are asked to do. That is all we can do. Our lives, like the farmer’s, are ongoing and various exercises in learning to trust God despite what we can see today.
Two farmers Story
Two farmers facing hard times and these two farmers were neighbours and looked out over their dry, dusty fields without much reason to hope.
There had been a drought the year before, and the money in the bank was nearly as dried up as the land in front of them. But the coming year promised to be the worst yet. As another season of drought was predicted in the forecasts, both farmers turned their faces toward Heaven and asked God to send the rain.
Weeks passed. Still there was no rain. If asked, both would have said they had faith in God to answer their prayers. Yet only one of the farmers did something. He climbed on his tractor, ploughed his fields and planted seeds.
In time, God answered the farmers’ prayers and sent the rain. But only one farmer reaped a harvest.
Why? Because regardless of what he saw in the natural, he believed God would bless the Seeds he planted in faith. He released the Seeds from his hand, and God released the harvest in His hand.
Harvest Is Sure
Our growth hinges upon both God’s investment and our obedience. The Lord ordained our means of growth through prayer, Scripture intake, and the church just as he ordained for plants to grow through good soil, sunlight, and rain. We can trust his process for growth, waiting patiently for him to bring about what he’s promised. He who called you is faithful, his will for your life is your sanctification, and he will keep his promise.
1 Thessalonians 4:3, For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
1 Thessalonians 5:24, He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
When it comes to growing long-term, everyday faithfulness in your life, think like a farmer who works and waits with patience, and know that the harvest is sure to come. One day, Jesus will present you pure and spotless before the Father, and what a harvest that will be!
Remove the weeds
Removing the weeds is an important aspect of farming.
In our garden there is a pine tree and there is weed which is a creeper and it started growing and little we realise it was a weed because it bloomed so nicely. Within a year the weed creeper completely covered the pine tree and almost killed the tree.
Again, we laid a new lawn and there is great amount of weed came through. There is a problem here, when we pull out the weed the new laid grass was also getting uprooted, so we got to be careful to removing the weeds.
Work and Wait
What does it look like to work and wait for a harvest of long- term faithfulness? How do you irrigate your heart during a spiritual drought or fight the weeds and pests of temptation or doubt? Peter tells us God has given us everything we need for life and godliness.
2 Peter 1:3–4, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that
through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Through the knowledge of God and his promises given in Scripture, we become more like him. Peter goes on to encourage believers to supplement their faith with godliness, knowledge, steadfastness, and self-control.
2 Peter 1:5–7, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. As we practice these qualities, God will bring about the fruit of our faith in Christ. Philippian 2:12–13, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
There is a promise bound up in this command to work and wait. God will bring about a harvest of growth and faithfulness in those who belong to him. He expects our obedience, but he will finish the work he has started in us.
Philippians 1:6, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
We can take part in the practices of faithfulness that God has given us with great confidence that He will bring about growth, maturity, and steadfastness in us. We can trust His process for growth, waiting patiently for Him to bring about that which he has promised.
To grow in knowledge of and love for God, we nourish our souls with truth by reading and meditating on Scripture. To fight sin and temptation, we draw near to him in prayer and outfit ourselves with his Word to help us stand firm (Ephesians 6:10–18).
We lean on the body of Christ to encourage us when we are weak. We have been given the gift of God’s living and active Word, free access to him in prayer, the help of the Holy Spirit, and regular exhortation from the church.
We are well equipped to work and wait for the day of the Lord with confidence and patience.
Think beyond barriers
Mark 4:14, The sower sows the word.
Matthew 13:3-9, Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The seed fall on all types of Soil. Don’t worry about sowing the word of God.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
Conclusion
Joy results from his long-term faithfulness.
Farmer is content in his work and in seeing what it’s produced over the years. He has learned the secret joy of trusting in God’s providence and experiencing his constant goodness. But there is also joy for in what he cannot see.
He explains how one tiny seed becomes a huge plant that produces a thousandfold of seeds. The harvest multiplies itself and goes out into the world in a way that he will never see with his own eyes. But because he can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
In our work and in our weariness, let us look to the farmer. Let us keep the deep-root, big picture in mind. If we don’t give up, one day we will enjoy the final harvest and its bountiful rewards. Unlike our farming friends, this harvest, one cultivated by faith, is absolutely guaranteed.