God will not always allow you to see visible fruit from your visible labors. Sometimes you are doing everything properly, at the right time, with an excellent motivation but no visible results are manifested – such is the work of the Kingdom. Yet, there are other seasons which I find even more peculiar. These occur when you are seemingly exerting no visible labors and our King chooses to bring forth an abundance of visible fruit. God sometimes blesses disproportionately and blatantly ignores our presumption that He always (only?) blesses according to our effort. Recently I have been humbled and encouraged by experiencing elements of an unforeseen harvest. The field was not ready. The seed was unproven in the area where I serve. I would have to begin the planting all alone. Yet, God has chosen to appoint something and then anoint something I could not have anticipated. Years ago I might have felt uncomfortable about harvesting in a place and season wherein I was not overly confident about how I was working the field. Those days are long gone, and now I welcome the opportunity to realize again how kind the Lord is to us. He enjoys loading us with His benefits.
It will likely remain a mystery to us concerning why God chooses to receive our sometimes tireless efforts and leave us no results to be seen. I have had many days, months and years wherein the fruit was slow to arrive. We know that He desires us to depend on Him and not to become fruit-addicts, so it would make sense that He might leave with us a call to endure, to remain steadfast and to continue where we have been planted by Him, even when there are seemingly no results. Yet how humbling it is when we feel we have not even brought the seed out of the barn and yet have beheld with our eyes a bumper crop produced with little to no labor from us. We occasionally reap sometimes where we have not sown, and this is also a proving ground for the people of God. Will we humbly receive produce for which we did not sweat? Can we leave the entire process to bask in the light of God’s glory? So often we feel as if we have done something wrong if we did not contribute much to a fruitful endeavor – we have been groomed to see ourselves as partners with God, and we are tempted to cringe as He wholly blesses us when we did not even discern there had been an opportunity. God is not looking at us as His partners. He is looking at His children and sometimes He will determine to bless you in ways that are not proportional to your labor. My advice would be for you to receive it as it is: a gift from a gracious and generous Father who has always delighted in giving us more than we merit.
“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” – Psalm 90:17
Yes, Father, please do this. Even when our hands were not called to contribute to the unforeseen harvest.
[ It will likely remain a mystery to us concerning why God chooses to receive our sometimes tireless efforts and leave us no results to be seen. ]
Bro. Lyle this really hit home with me, because the church I am at now I am the Associate Pastor but it has been over a year in which I brought a message. It was almost like Lord why am I here did you take my ministry from me? I feel I did that tireless work but I now wonder if I run ahead and worked without his guidance? I am really doing some thinking after reading your blog here. I continue to pray Lord do you want to move me or what am I to do? As yet, no answer but as you said I may have to remain steadfast in my place. God Bless you my brother in your work for our Gracious Father and Lord Jesus.
Amen brother Lyles. I’ve been feeling this SAME THING in the Lord! May we all hold fast in His Strength.
God’s Blessings to your fervent love of labour in the ministry He has you doing.
~ Bro. Jed
In a few days when you get to Africa, I pray that the Lord Jesus will receive a gigantic harvest as a result of the event in which He is allowing and blessing you to take part. I pray that not only will men of God be more fully trained and receive their own study bibles, but that many of them who did not fully know and understand the Gospel will be saved for the first time and become men of God. I have been praying and am very excited about all of this, not just the result it will have in the next few days but the results we will see longterm when we all get to Heaven with our Lord and Savior.