Dear reader,
welcome to the last part (series ten) of this ongoing study on divine principles of sowing and reaping. In conclusion, we are learning about how to ensure the sustainability of our harvest. Sustainability is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state. It’s a term that has become famous in different fields of human endeavors. You have to be able to sustain your blessing so as not to run dry.

Let’s go back to farming and see what the farmer does. Definitely you will reap whatever you sow. you cannot sow poor quality grains and expect to reap the best quality harvest. Farmers with little access to improved breeds have learned over the years to first select the fattest and strongest animals for breeding, also the biggest cob and largest grains for replanting the next season. No matter how hungry, a farmer knows to spare the best part of his harvest for replanting so as to have a more promising harvest. Otherwise his hunger will be multiplied the next season to come.

The Lord tells us in Exodus 23 verse 19 that the first of the first fruits of our land, we should bring into his house. The same thing repeated in Exodus 34 verse 26. The first fruit of grain harvest (Lev. 23 verse 10-14, exodus 23 verse 16-17), of wine, oil and wool (Deut 18 verse 4), and of all agricultural produce (Deut. 26 verse 2). Not just the first fruit but also the very best of all “To be the very best of their kind (Numbers 18 verse 12) “all the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD”.

When we give our best, not just are we sowing but also, God is honored by such offering “Honor the Lord with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase: (Proverbs 3:9). Tell me who will honor God and God will not honor him in return. Applying these principles to our contemporary life, what is the best part of your harvest? Can you secure a job and give the whole of your first wages to the Lord? The tax service does not need your say to deduct your tax from your paycheck before you ever receive the pay check. However, because God will not do that, most of us put tithe and offering last. As such, we only pay them when it is convenient, but God says he wants it first before anything else. Of course if you don’t give it first, it becomes difficult for you to pay it when you start thinking of other expenses which are always there anytime.

Come to think of it, God gave us his best and only son that is why he is still reaping children every day as people turn to him for acceptance and forgiveness. Beloved, to sustain our riches in Christ Jesus, we must be givers of the best of our all. Abel gave his best and his offering was accepted by God. There are situations that money will not be able to solve your problem, and then you will need divine resources to bail you out. If you have no deposit in your spiritual account, what do you want to draw on in time of need? Remember money can buy you the best of all beds but it cannot buy you sleep.

Money can buy you the best of all wears but cannot buy you glory and acceptance before people. Lazarus knew something was missing; he was rich but missing joy and happiness, which he found when he met Jesus and gave back to the needy. There is always a vacuum which nothing can fill except the joy of Christ. How do you want to possess this joy if you cannot lay your all on his altar? The bible says let our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If they could pay tithes of ordinary spices like mint, dill and cumin, what of the money that you and I earn today? Beloved, let us ponder on these teachings and modify our ways so that God will always prove himself faithful in our lives as he did with Patriarchs of old. Watch for next teachings. Till then, remain holy.