Seeds
Whatever seed you sow is what you will harvest.
So stay focused on him.
January 19, 2026
Today, I keep getting this floating through my mind.
It doesn't matter how hard you fought for something if you do not have the character to keep it. Without good character, you will have lost what you fought so hard to gain.
I look at the story of my mother, for example. She was homeless and put herself through school while living in a women's shelter. She got a good-paying job and worked it for many years. Though a series of bad choices and weak character, she lost that job and became homeless once again.
People are so focused on achieving an item that they pay little attention to the maintenance required to keep it. For example, people want to buy a particular type of car. The simple-minded only focus on the cost of getting the car. Once you have the car, you still have to keep paying for other expenses, such as insurance and fuel, which are the most basic requirements to keep it running. The simple don't factor in the maintenance cost for oil changes and repairs, or the time needed to keep it clean. Depending on where you live and the type of car, it may need to be sheltered from the weather to maintain it. These are like self-discipline aspects of character needed to keep the car in good working order and extend its lifespan. The simple become wise when they learn and grow. The simple become fools when they refuse to learn and do their own thing.
Self-discipline overcomes laziness, and that is the focus here; some factors are just beyond our control. This is meant for the things we can control. We are called to walk by faith, and some things only God can handle, and it is a test of our faith. With the story of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the master was judging them based on what they did with what they had, not what their neighbour had. We need to be trusted with a little before we can be trusted with a lot more. It's a simple principle that many want to overlook and skip ahead. That principle helps set the foundation of your character and your capacity to keep and maintain your blessings.
It's the small things that grow into big things. Look at the size of a seed compared to an adult plant; it shows that the small things are important too. It is in how you care for the little things that determine how well they grow. Every choice that you make is a seed planted in your life. Your habits help cultivate those seeds. Some seeds are good, some are bad. In a garden, weeding is always necessary to maintain it. Even if you have a good plant, if it's in the wrong place or there are too many of them, it becomes a weed. Cultivating a garden is a lot like cultivating a relationship in life with the LORD. Each garden is unique and dynamic; even the most basic garden has many layers, just like how the Lord walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. The Lord walks with us in the garden of our lives. Adam and Eve still worked in the garden before the fall, Genesis 2:15 NLT: “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it”. Working in a garden is part of our human design. After the fall, the work becomes more intense when the LORD announces the curse. (Genesis 3: 17-19). Many things in gardening teach us about the Lord, his nature, and the world he created.
If you zoom out of that picture, you see that we are like a plant in his great garden, planted with his other plants, fulfilling a purpose that only he can truly see and understand. Just as we can govern our own gardens, he governs us in his. Like a wheat field, for example, in (Matthew 13:24-30), some are wheat, some are tares. He decides how and when to deal with the tares, and there is a time of harvest. Some are trees planted by the river (Psalm 1:3), and some are great cedar trees (Psalm 92:12, Amos 2:9, Ezekiel 31, Ezekiel 17:22-24, Song of Solomon 5:15). The Lord often refers to his people as plants in an analogy. He uses creation to teach us concepts and help us grow in understanding his ways. He hides his wisdom in everything he created. It's for his glory to be hidden and for the Glory of kings to seek him out. The simple that become wise seek wisdom that calls out day and night (Proverbs 1:20). Wisdom and understanding were used to form the foundations of the earth (Proverbs 3:19). The foolish ignore wisdom. The prudent heeds the call of wisdom and gains understanding by applying it to their lives.
We are all born foolish. It's through discipline that the folly is taken out of a child(Proverbs 22:15). It's the child's choice to listen to their parents' wisdom or to choose a different path. Train up a child for the way that they should go, when they are old, they won't depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). The beginning of true wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). From there, we are set on the right path of righteousness that is blessed and protected. Not easy, but blessed. These principles of wisdom in proverbs are paths of blessings; if the wicked applied them to their life, they too would see benefits. However, for the fullness of the blessings, you need to be walking right with the LORD. We can only do that with Jesus, who paid the price for our sins, granting us mercy and grace for when we stumble—allowing a path of redemption back to the Father if they choose to repent and submit to his ways. For his ways are good, even if we don't understand them, we need to know that he is good. In time, understanding will come if you remain in him; he will remain in you (Proverbs 3:5, John 15:4). When we accept Jesus into our lives, we become branches on him, the true vine. The Holy Spirit produces his fruit in us. How yielded to his ways we are determines how much fruit there is. The father is the gardener tending to the vine and its branches in love and with delightful purpose. ( John 15: 1-11)
Prayer
Father God, I lift up those reading this to you today. I pray that you help them grow in their character. That you help them to understand how important it is in our daily lives. Suppose you take a ring with precious stones. The stones are the gifts you have given us, LORD, and the gold shaping the ring is our character. May our character be larger than our gifts so that we keep hold of them, like the fasteners holding the stones in the ring. May we love you more, God, than the gifts you have given us. May we seek the praise of heaven over the praise of man. May we be seekers of your face and heart more than your hand of blessings. Help us grow in self-discipline and run our race well for your glory and honour. We would like to understand the season we are in and work according to its needs, as wisdom and understanding show us. Thank you for allowing us to be wise, LORD. Protect us, Father, from any snares of the evil one that tries to trick us and lure us away. Give us eyes that see through the tricks and strengthen us to stay on your godly path, walking in your ways, procuring holiness by surrendering to you, Jesus, and your ways. May we return to our first love and be on fire for you again. We repent of going our own way and not crucifying the fleshly desires, allowing them to rule over us instead of our spirit man. May our lives be a delight to you, and may we bring you all the glory, honour, and praise in Jesus mighty name, amen and thank you.