A TIME to plant Doing the watering and praying

By Roxanne Drury

1 Corinthians 3: 6-8 reads, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.”

These verses are rich with meaning for Christians.

First, they remind us of the privilege and responsibility we have to plant seeds of faith in the lives of the people we know who don’t know Jesus. However, what happens with those seeds is not in our control. God controls that. Paul says, “God makes the seeds grow.” That takes some of the load off our shoulders, but we are still responsible for planting and watering those seeds.

Did you ever look at the seeds inside an apple?

When you cut an apple a certain way, you see a cool little star inside of it, and each section of the star houses an apple seed. We can count the seeds inside that apple but not how many apples will come from each seed.

Think about that in terms of the people in your neighborhood or workplace, or even your family or your children. When kids see us reading our Bible, that’s planting seeds. When people see and hear us pray in a restaurant, that’s planting seeds. When they hear us give God credit, that’s plant ing seeds. When you tell someone about something God has done in your life, that’s watering the seeds you have planted. When you share what you learned at church, that’s watering the seeds. When you praise or thank God where those seeds were planted, that’s water ing the seeds. We don’t know what God has planned for each person we plant a little seed of faith in, but we do know that He will grow the seeds that we plant.

That’s why it is so important to keep planting and to keep watering. So that God can keep doing what He does in the lives of those who don’t know Him. So each time you see a flower bloom, let it be a sweet reminder of the tremendous privilege we have to tell others that Jesus is alive, He loves them and wants to have a relationship with them. We can pray for our friends and family that God grows those seeds into a faith that is as alive as Jesus. That they will love like Jesus, have compassion like Jesus, and a life of giving like Jesus. All that from one little seed. Amazing!

You loosen the soil around their hearts by being present in the lives of the people around you, planting little seeds here and there, and watering them with your words and actions and a good dose of prayer. God will do the rest. Who knows? You might plant a seed in the next Billy Graham. It could happen!

Pray that God will give you wisdom and consistency as you plant seeds of faith in the lives of those around you and that God will grow those seeds so that many apples come from them. It’s time to get out our gardening tools. Blessings, friends. Happy planting. n

Roxanne Drury is a wife, mother, grandmother, and retired Christian preschool teacher who loves the Lord and His Word. She has served the Lord in children’s ministry for over 45 years and is currently on staff at Rockharbor Church. She has written a book that she calls “a God-inspired book for little girls” and, recently, a devotional book and group study guide on Psalm 23. She may be reached at glorylandbooks@gmail.com