HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Zachariah 10:1 – - Ask the Lord for rain In the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone.
Colossians 3:17- And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT) - Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
We are blessed. We are blessed as Christians because of all that God has done for us.
We are blessed as Americans because we live with unprecedented abundance.
We are blessed because we have a God who loves us and who listens to and answers our prayers.
We live in a world that conditions us to be unhappy and unsatisfied.
We have a Savior and a Heavenly Father who has promised to supply all of our need according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.
The truth is that we have so much abundance and blessing that we have become a people that take things for granted.
“To Take for Granted” is an expression that means to value something or someone too lightly, or to fail to appreciate something that should be valued.
~ Someone said - Negative pessimism is a hard monkey to get off your back, It colors everything dull and bland. It stifles creativity, ruins relationships, and makes everything hopeless. You lose sight of all that you “have and are” for what you “want and are not.”
There is a saying that tells us – “When the precious becomes common, it is soon to be lost”.
So much of what we once held precious has become so common that it has lost its value to us and instead of being thankful, we just expect it and stop appreciating what we have and have been given.
God’s will for us as His Children is that we are grateful and thankful for what He has done and for what others do for us and for all that we have.
What are things in your life that you consider precious? What are some things in your life that you are thankful for that would be easy for you to take for granted?
We have so much to be thankful for.
I don’t want to be the kind of person that takes things for granted.
The prophet Zachariah tells us that we need to ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain.
This seems quite odd when you think about it. Ask God for rain at the time that it is supposed to be raining.
The time of the latter rain is a normal repeating event that happens each time that this season comes around. The latter rain happens right before harvest time.
The prophet tells the people to give special attention to a thing that normally would receive no special attention.
Why? You see the farmer must plant the crop and tend to the crop and keep out the weeds and the pests. But only God can bring the rain. That is out of their control. They are trusting in the faithfulness and dependability of God to do what they can’t do for themselves.
The blessings of God are seasonal. They are poured out and then we get to enjoy them in all the other seasons because we have had a harvest because He sent the rain.
We love the excitement of the rain and the harvest but we can easily get discontented in the other seasons even though we are living in abundance because we have grown addicted to the new or the excitement of the rain.
Gratitude is the antidote to growing bored with the blessings of God.
God has promised that is we are obedient to His Word and to His ways that He will pour out so much blessing that we won’t have room to contain it.
Malachi 3:10 - Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
The NIV doesn’t say windows it says – “Floodgates”. God says that when we are obedient to His Word and Ways that we will go from not enough to Way more than enough.
We will now have the good problem of figuring out what to do with all of the blessings that He has given us.
The thing is if we are not careful, we will become so used to the more than enough that we don’t appreciate what we have.
The Prophet Zachariah is reminding us to never take anything for granted.
We are to pray about everything. Even the repeated reoccurring events in life.
Prayer is not just about the asking it is about the relationship we have with God. It is not taking Him or what He does for granted. It is taking the time to say thank you.
Do you view prayer as primarily asking or thanking God for things?
Prayer keeps us attuned, grateful for what we have, and it keeps us vigilant.
It is in the well-worn paths that the hunter lays a snare. It is in the commonly used trails where we become inattentive and unwatchful, making us vulnerable to attacks.
Prayer keeps us from being easily distracted or preoccupied.
Remember when you were first married, and your spouse had your full attention? Or you prayed for a car and house and now you have those things, and they seem like no big deal. Satan likes to trap us when we stop paying attention in areas of our life that have become familiar.
Prayer guards our heart from ungratefulness and selfishness.
It also helps us to stay in the peace of God. Have you ever noticed how sometimes we get anxious wondering if God will do for us again what He did in the past?”
Gratefulness drives the fear out of our lives. Satan always wants to steal our peace. That only happens when we stop thanking God for who He is.
Philippians 4:6-7 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
In our times of prayer, we are to thank God for who He is, for what He has done and for what He is going to do in response to prayer.
This Thanksgiving season is a great time to look at our lives and realize just how really good God has been to us. To recognize that we are living in abundance.
If you are going through a difficult season. It will be helpful to look back at all that God has already brought you through. My friend. He will do it again.
May the peace of God be yours in abundance. May your heart rest in the assurance that you matter to God and that He loves you.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your precious family.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by katerinavulcova from Pixabay