Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Matthew 9:37 NIV
Passion for the Lost Part 3
In 8th grade, I took a 9 week farming class. Each student had part of a row to plant radishes and carrots. The length of growing season allowed us to harvest the veggies before the 9 weeks were over. Knowing when to harvest, is a learned skill and an art…which I never mastered. I have a tendency to leave things in the ground too long. Most people that have the skills, just look at a plant and can tell the maturity of the harvest. I rely on Pam to know when to pick our veggies.
Do you know what a ripe “lost person” looks like? What signs show their level of maturity? How would you describe a person that is “ready” to become a follower of Jesus? Would you recognize them if they were working beside you, in class with you, living in your neighborhood, in the grocery line, sitting beside you in church, at the ballpark watching your kids?
Jesus told his disciples that the harvest is ready…the problem is lack of workers. Could the lack of workers be due in part to their ignorance that the harvest is truly plentiful? If we think the harvest is somewhere else in the world, we may miss the fruit in our own vineyard.
On one of my mission trips to Colombia, one of the evangelists consistently passed several people on the street before he would stop and engage a person in a conversation. In just a few minutes, he would lead the person in a prayer of salvation. I asked him how he knew who to approach? He said, “The Holy Spirit would just show him who to go to next”. He started with the idea that ripe harvest was all around, we just needed the Holy Spirit to direct our “going”.
For this devo, I did some research on a ripe radish. You can see the top of the radish starting to come out of the dirt. How will you train yourself to be a skilled worker in the harvest of eternal souls? God has strategically placed you at this time, in this generation, to plant, water, nurture, and harvest. Ask the Lord to help you see the ripened harvest. Passion for the lost begins to consume us, when we see the ripened harvest being lost because there was no one to pick the fruit.
Blessings Love y’all