The Harvest Season (by Cathe Laurie)
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9 NLT).
October’s here, and you can see evidence of the new season all across the country—fall leaves in New England, humid nights in the South, and chilly “sweater weather” all around. But one of the most significant parts of the fall season? It’s harvest time!
It’s time for farmers to collect the crops they’ve been growing all year. It’s a time of plenty (hopefully), a time when all the hard work that went into planting and growing finally comes to fruition.
There’s a proper time for harvest, a precise moment when the crops are at their best to collect. It’s a science. It’s not something that happens overnight—it’s something that takes time. If the harvest is done early or late, the crops will be useless.
Over the year, crops grow roots so that as the seasons come and go, they still stand strong. Those roots dig deep to pull nutrients from the earth. As they’re fed by the soil, sun, and water, they develop and nourish to become all they’re meant to be.
Not Every Season Is a Harvest Season
We all love a good harvest season, don’t we? Those seasons of life when things come in plenty, when God seems to be raining blessings upon us. But the harvest doesn’t happen overnight.
Wouldn’t that be nice? If God could just plant a seed, and then all of a sudden, the plenty comes? Sure, God could do that, but He rarely does.
After all, if we don’t have time—through the seasons of faith-building and trust-stretching—how would we build our roots? It’s through those roots and through every season that God nourishes us and grows us into all that we are meant to be.
Before You Get to Harvest. . .
Have you been waiting for the harvest in your own life? Have you been itching for that time of plenty, facing every hard season, wondering if God will ever come through with His promise? Maybe you feel like you’ve been in winter so long, you’re wondering if the crops are even still growing.
But remember . . . we can only see the plants growing over time. If we focus on one day at a time, we don’t see all that God is doing, both above and below the surface.
God won’t harvest early, and He certainly won’t harvest late, either! He knows exactly the yield He wants to bring into your life, and the precise moment when that yield will be at its absolute maximum.
Whatever you’re waiting for, whatever He has planned, He knows the perfect time. I know waiting can seem like a foreign concept nowadays, but trust me . . . the harvest is worth waiting for.
Real growth—mental, spiritual, physical—and real reward takes time, not instant fixes.
Galatians 6:9 reminds us: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (NLT).
Be patient. Wait for the moment when the Lord—the Master Gardener—knows it’s time to harvest, when the fields are ripe and perfect. Let Him grow you. Let Him nourish you. Let Him feed you with all you need through these seasons, and know that the harvest is coming; we must just be patient and persistent in faith.
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Cathe Laurie is the founder and director of the Virtue women’s ministry. She is also a featured speaker on The Virtue Podcast, at Harvest events, and the author of As I See It. You can find her weekly articles here on harvest.org.
