By Jackie Ricks
How many of you garden? I’ve tried my hand at it, but I’m not very good. I still plant morning glories every year, but that’s about all. I seem to kill every plant I touch. However, as I look around at the beautiful world, I realize that God takes care of many plants without my help at all. In fact, the results are always up to Him. The same is true of our witnessing. God tells us to go and tell, but He is responsible for the results.
Recently, we had a Texas state mission rally in our local area. Chris Driver, one of our missionaries and the new editor of the Baptist Progress, spoke. His text was Luke 8:4-15. He reminded us that our responsibility as believers is to sow the seed. Of course, the seed is the gospel, or God’s Word. We are not to be distracted by other things. So many times, nowadays, we worry about entertaining the youth, helping the elderly or doing other good activities. But often we forget our main mission is to sow the gospel.
How many times have you told someone about Jesus and then tried to take responsibility for the results? The sowing is our responsibility, but the results belong to God. Just as the Sower didn’t have any responsibility in whether those seeds grew or not, neither do we have any right to take responsibility for whether or not a person accepts Christ as their Savior. Or if we’re not sowing seed for salvation, but maybe sharing the Word for advice, whether or not the person corrects their ways and turns back to God is also not up to us. All we have to do is follow the Lord’s leadership in sharing and sowing the gospel.
Maybe you hesitate to witness because you’re afraid you’ll “do it wrong” or say the wrong thing. The Holy Spirit will help you and will take the seeds of the gospel that you sow and turn them into whatever they become in that person’s life. Someone else may come along and water those seeds. But God is ultimately the one responsible for the outcome.
As Jesus taught in Luke 8:4-15 and Paul reminded us in I Cor. 3:7, the results are always in God’s hands. Our prayer can simply be, “Lord, thank You that I am not responsible for the results, but please help me to sow Your seed more so that others may know about You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” So, as we go about our days, let’s sow the seed of the gospel whenever we have the chance and trust God to take care of the outcome.
