It’s been said, “In business, your profit may exceed the effort invested, or may be less. In spiritual matters, the yield is exactly equal to the effort expended.” Did you notice what’s wrong with this statement?
It kind of sounds like Galatians 6:7, “A man reaps what he sows,” which is in the context of becoming more like Jesus. You sow seeds of doing what you want to do, you’ll reap your character. If you sow Jesus seeds, you’ll reap Jesus’ character. It does take effort on our part to produce Christ like character.
So far so good. You sow good seed in good soil, you will reap good fruit. When it comes to Jesus, however, He can produce a lot more in us than the effort we bring to the table. Jesus tells two stories on this issue. One, in John 12:23, states that if a seed dies it can produce many seeds. He also states in Mark 4, when seed is planted in good soil, it can produce a lot of fruit, much more than the effort it took to plant that seed into the soil.
Truth, we get nothing if we make no effort to plant something. Truth, if we plant Jesus seeds, we will see our lives changed. Truth, our God is so good, gracious and great that we certainly get more bang for our effort’s buck…if we are willing to die.
S“E”t Free Nowww