Seeing Growth

One of the girls in my small group texted me this evening with questions about what she read in the book of Genesis. Yesterday she gladly told me that she finally was able to buy a new Bible.

Seeing a person with a heart and eagerness to know His word more is such a privilege. Nothing compares to the joy of seeing your disciple grow. It pays all the hard times. :) I was encouraged to continue on sowing seeds. Surely our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).

"You know what? It is hard. Maybe this is why Paul encourages doing the "work" of evangelism. It is work, and a hard work at that. You put your heart out there. You offer grace and acceptance and love to people far from God. You make the phone calls. You extend the hand of friendship. You pick up the phone in the middle of the night. And at the end of the day, you just feel like you've been ripped to shreds. But somehow you hang in there, determined to keep sowing seed. Sure you may be a fool, but you're a special kind of fool. You're the fool who still believes that a tiny green sprout will one day rise up from the dirt.

Someday, friends, there comes a harvest. Someday there is a payoff. Someday sinners become saints. And between now and then, we get to keep spreading the message. We get to keep playing the roles we are meant to play. We get to keep planting seeds, trusting that God will bring the increase. Because in due time - oh, the increase that he brings!"

- Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room

DAY 4 08.15.10 11:27pm