One of the foundational principles of the Bible is sowing and reaping. The Bible says in numerous places that we will reap what we sow. With that said, there are many people who have sown finances, time, energy, and other resources and have yet to reap a full harvest on that which they have sown. This leads to an important question:
Why is that? Why do we sow and not reap or why do we so and not always reap a full harvest? Look at Psalms 126:5-6:
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.
Did you catch that? We may sow in tears, but we reap in joy! Think about it, joy is the overflow of true faith. When we really believe we are going to receive a promise from God, we become joyous. This means we may sow financially with tears, but eventually if we are meditating God’s word about Him meeting our needs according to His riches in glory it should bring us to a place of joy!
Said another way, if we aren’t in joy, we aren’t abounding in faith and its faith that receives the promises of God. Look at 1 Peter 1:8-9
8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith.
Notice, this passage says that when we believe we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory and this causes us to receive the end of our faith. I’ll say it again. Joy is overflow of true faith!
So how do we get to this place of joy? We meditate the promise of God we are believing and ask the Holy Spirit to paint our imagination with the reality of what it will look like in our lives when this promise comes to pass. When we see what we are believing for in our heart, it will bring us into a place of true joy! We won’t have to try to rejoice, it will be the overflow of what we believe.
Think about it, if you were believing God for the finances to pay off your house and then I gave you a check for one million dollars, what would you do? You’d rejoice! Why? Because you would be excited you received that which you were believing for! You’d be excited about the check I gave you and would trust I had the money in the bank so when you cashed the check the provision would be there. This is how it is with the promises of God. They are like a check we must cash by faith believing God has the funds in the bank to provide when we cash the check.
I want to encourage you to get out of discouragement and into joy today. Discouragement is a symptom of a lack of faith. When you feel that way, get back into the word of God until your emotions get in line and begin to rejoice about the promises of God! Rejoice in the promiser who will bring them to pass! When you get into joy you will reap and bring your sheaves, which are symbolic of harvest with you!
If you’d like to learn more about the power of rejoicing before you see the promise manifest, check out this message I taught at Grace Life Church!
