Isaiah 61
PLANT THE SEEDS

There is something exciting about gardening when we put what look like dead seeds into the ground and cover them up, only to have them pop up from the soil a week or two later as bright green shoots, uniform, strong, growing and full of life. When I plant seeds, I watch for them every day, and the miracle of growth never fails to amaze me.

Isaiah says the days are coming when righteousness will sprout up in the same way. I find that hard to imagine, but this is what Isaiah says: “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” (Isaiah 61 v 11 ESV).

If righteousness and praise are going to sprout up, then there must be seeds that have been planted in the mud getting ready to sprout. Maybe we are planting the seeds now as we preach. Maybe any unresponsiveness we see is actually the seeds germinating and getting ready to sprout. Let us plant seeds of righteousness and praise.

May we be faithful witnesses for our God this weekend.

With love in our Lord,
Robert