Planting in 2007

What the Bible says about Refocusing your Life-pt. 2

There was a man sitting on his porch in Kentucky. He's only recently retired from the post office, and he's sitting there when his first Social Security check is delivered. He's very, very discouraged. He thinks to himself, "Is this what life is going to be from now on--sitting on the porch waiting for my check to arrive?"

He decided he wouldn't settle for that, and so he made a list of all of the things he had going for him, all the blessings and the capacities, the unique things that were in him. The list was long because he listed everything he could think of and in the list was the fact that he was the only person on earth who knew his mother's recipe for fried chicken. It used eleven different herbs and spices.

So he went to a nearby restaurant and asked if he could cook the chicken, and they said yes. It soon became the most popular item on the menu. So he opened his own restaurant, and then others, and a string of restaurants. Eventually Harland Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise across all of America.

He finally retired a second time (all this happened, you remember, after he had retired from the postal service), and he continued in the service of the company as a public relations representative for a quarter of a million dollars a year till his death. Now here was a man who did not allow himself to be defeated by discouragement. He took a look at it recognized it was there, but then went on to look at what he had with which to deal with it and used that.

A lot of us get to the beginning of a year like that. Maybe you did not get the kind of things you wanted in ‘06. Maybe ‘06 was so bad you would like to retire! But like the Colonel we can come to times like that and choose to plant for our future. We need the courage to look at this New Year and see it as a year to invest or plant seeds for the future God has for us. We can not allow discouraging things to affect us so much that we give up on a life of serving, giving, and loving. It is a truth if we continue to sow the right kind of things into our lives we will eventually reap.

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” (Galatians 6:9)

Can you see it? If we DO loose heart we can loose the very things we want and need. But HOW do you keep from giving up... Where do you get the moral rectitude to keep going? “I know that if I keep going that I will eventually reap but I feel so out of gas…so demoralized that I don’t WANT to go on any more.” God gives that too.

”10 Don't be afraid, because I am with you. Don't be intimidated; I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 GW)

Remember to keep the main thing the main thing in ‘07. If you continue to serve the Lord this year you WILL eventually reap a great harvest…. One that will bless your socks off!