Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Background

It’s time to plant my summer garden. For a few years, I have tried to grow several different vegetables, with varying degrees of success. But the one item that has repeatedly failed us has been cucumbers. Every year, the plants emerge from the ground, beautiful and green and healthy. But before the cucumbers can begin to develop from the blooms, the leaves of the plants begin to change color. The dark green gives way to white and then brown, and whatever cucumbers that happened to be produced are tiny and no good. A friend diagnosed the condition as downy mildew, a blight which cannot be cured once it appears on the plant. But what he also told me was that there is a type of cucumber seed that is resistant to downy mildew, and he offered to get me some of them through a friend of his. Within a few days, the packet of seed was on my desk. And now, when I plant, I’m very excited that I will actually be able to reap cucumbers from those plants, instead of the nothing that I have harvested in previous years.

Application

I had grown weary of growing cucumbers. I wasn’t reaping what I was sowing. Each spring I hoped, and each summer was disappointed. I think being weary is more common than we realize. I think it grows within us at such a slow, hardly detectable rate, though, that we rarely identify it as such. Even doing good can bring weariness. We give of ourselves and spend our energy, but for what? So often we’re not sure. Even scripture just says we’ll reap, but it doesn’t say what, at least not in this verse. Even the cucumber plant will give me cucumbers in due time. But what scripture does say all throughout is that enduring is necessary, doing good is right, and God is ever faithful. We may not know the end of our well doing. But we are in love with the One who does. Remembering that can make you weary-resistant.

Charge

As we seek Him today, keep doing the good that is before you. Keep your heart full of His promises and good pleasure. Keep anticipating the bountiful harvest.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words