In Scripture we see that the whole harvest belongs to the LORD. He graciously nourishes and provides us with the fruits of His harvest and He expects us to bless others with His harvest fruits.
We experience the blessing and nurture of the LORD’s harvest via His gifts, such as food, water, the natural creation, shelter, employment, income, love of family, friends and church family, acquisition of education to live and grow our knowledge and skills… His harvest provides all of the things we need to live an abundant life and thrive, experiencing harvest contentment and whole health. His blessings fill us physically, mentally, spiritually, and relationally and enable us to live in the experience of HARVEST! Doesn’t it fill your life with gratitude and praise for our LORD, the LORD of the harvest?
When we recognise that God is the LORD of the harvest, it must surely alter the way we live our lives and direct the way we use and SHARE His harvest fruits, given to us so we can thrive and bless others. Our gifts of a home, food, money, knowledge, skills, employment, friendships, relationships and the whole health we experience in family and community are gifted to us to steward and share with other people and BLESS our world.
God is LORD of your harvest and the whole harvest belongs to Him. How can you bless the world with your time, talent, knowledge, friendship, your home, food and money? It is a question we must all take time to ponder, because we don’t have to look far to see injustice, poverty, starvation, sickness, war and distress… and we have been given the harvest fruits to bless others so they can experience God’s love.
The SARS Covid BA.2 sub-variant is spreading
across our continent with stealth,[1] creating
health and wellbeing problems for many people and significant challenges for
our health and community care systems. Many churches are experiencing reduced
attendances in worship services and a reduction in community activities.[2] The
rapid increase in inflation is placing pressure on household incomes and
consequently the income of charities, community services and faith communities.
Community groups report a reduction in volunteering and many churches are also
dealing with this sad trend.[3] We are
surrounded by stressful situations, environmental catastrophes, violence,
conflict and war across the world. It can lead us to feel tired and defeated,
but we are not powerless in the face of all of this trouble. We need to
remember God is LORD of the harvest and He will provide.
We must continue to focus on blessing others with God’s harvest fruits/seeds that demonstrate His love. We are God’s body, His hands and feet, head and heart… to lavishly sow His love into the lives of all. God is responsible for the growth of the seeds we sow, which in His time will produce a harvest.
God calls and sends out the harvest workers, but we are to earnestly ask God to send out the workers to reap His harvest (Matthew 9:38). God’s harvest fields across the globe are full of people looking for help, hope and whole health. In John 4:35b Jesus tells His disciples “…I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest!” The question we need to answer for ourselves is ‘How and where is the Lord calling me to be his harvest worker?’
Dr Anne van Loon, Chairperson AFCNA
[1] Truu,M. 2022, ‘With the new BA.2 COVID sub-variant spreading rapidly, what will Australia’s colder months look like?’, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-15/ba-2-influenza-what-will-winter-be-like-in-australia/100903052
[2] Wang, W., & Elhage A 2022, ‘Here’s Who Stopped Going to Church During the Pandemic’, Christianity Today, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/january-web-only/attendance-decline-covid-pandemic-church.html
[3] Pillay, J., 2020, ‘COVID-19 Shows the Need to Make Church More Flexible’, Transformation 2020, Vol. 37(4) 266 –275, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0265378820963156