She JourneysSample

Spring - Written by Claire Hailwood

Day 13 - A Time to Sow 

Despite years of creatively trying, much to my mum’s disappointment, none of her children have taken up her love of gardening. In fact, as the eldest child, I have a particular gift in killing houseplants when someone mistakenly gives them to me. However, a childhood spent watching and being involved in growing plants means I have clear memories of my mum going out in the early days of spring and turning over the soil in the garden, removing anything that would hinder growth, and readying the earth for planting seeds. What I know is that spring is an excellent time to sow seeds. In the natural, the combination of warm air and moist soil makes the perfect condition for maximum growth and fruitfulness, yielding an abundant harvest of sown seeds. If you sow seeds too early then they simply won’t grow, too late and the size of the harvest is greatly diminished.

Ecclesiastes 3:2 (NIV) says that there’s a season, a time to sow. Similarly to the natural world, a ‘spring’ season in our spiritual lives, is a great time to sow while embracing newness and change. It’s an important time to turn over the soil in our lives, to remove fruitless plants that have been left  from past seasons. More significantly, it’s an important time to sow and lay foundations for what is to come.

What kind of things should we sow in spring? 

1. Sow seeds of character 
   Our tendency in spring can be to get distracted by temporary and earthly things that will pass away - a position, a role, wealth - all things that satisfy our sinful nature. We’re called to something different. Spring gives us an opportunity to move away from the things of our sinful nature, perhaps some of the things that have held us back in the seasons we’re leaving behind and to invest in fruit that will last. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) describes the fruit of a life with the Holy Spirit. As you read this list - what seeds do you need to sow in this season? Where is there opportunity for greater fruitfulness now and in the seasons to come?
2. Sow seeds of vision
   Proverbs 29 v 18 (TPT) clearly tells us that when we don’t have vision, which helps give us direction, we don’t thrive and can become aimless and fruitless. The excitement of the newness of spring gives us an opportunity to pursue God’s vision for what’s next, in our lives, for our families, in our church, and in the world. Sowing seeds of vision involves taking steps in line with the vision God reveals because that will lead to fruitfulness.
   
   What vision do you have for now and for the future? What steps can you take now in line with that?
3. Sow seeds of faith and trust
   Jesus makes it really clear that sowing seeds of trust involves aligning our lives to God’s reality, making decisions not to worry on the things of the world but to go after building His kingdom first, Matthew 6:22-33 (MSG). Immersing ourselves with the things of His kingdom in a spring season plants seeds of faith and trust that will grow and multiply in and through us in the seasons to come.