“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” – Mathew 9:37
I love gardening. By no means am I a professional, but the quiet time I spend in my garden is so special because it brings me such peace. It’s a place where I get to connect with God. I often sit in awe of His creation. I listen to the birds chirping, watch the butterflies and bees moving through the garden, and seeing the progression of the seeds and seedlings I planted slowly grow and mature.
Although it is hard work, it is very rewarding. There’s something so beautiful about tending to them; watering them, providing nutrients, making sure they receive enough sunlight, while also protecting them from too much of it. It made me think about us. We are like little seeds and seedlings that need love, care, water, nutrients, and sunlight to grow. In many ways, God does the same with us. In every season, He is nurturing, pruning, protecting, growing, and teaching us. Even when growth feels slow or unseen, He is still at work.
The Word of God provides us with these daily nutrients that we need, that refreshes us like water, and it also serves as a sword that protects us, guides us, and provides wisdom and instruction. Also being part of a church community, helps us to build meaningful connections with other believers, allows us to surround ourselves with people of faith who do life together, and pour into each other to grow and mature spiritually together.
So what does this have to do with the harvest being plentiful?
When the Word of God truly penetrates our hearts and we begin to walk out the instructions Jesus gave us, it has everything to do with us. We should want to emulate the One who saved us, forgave us, and made a way for us to have eternal life with Him forever. How could we not share that message? How could we not want that same hope for others? And how do we keep it to ourselves or assume someone else will do it?
The Lord sees the harvest. He sees the people in need of loving kindness, compassion, a listening ear, help paying a bill, someone to cry with, or simply someone willing to sit and listen. He sees the deeply wounded, the lonely, the hurting, and those who have lost hope.
Look around… they are everywhere.
And yet Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” – Mathew 9:37
Why is that? Maybe because loving people the way Jesus did requires sacrifice. It requires time, compassion, patience, obedience, and dying to ourselves. It requires us to step outside of comfort and truly see people the way He sees them, but this is exactly what we are called to do. Many people do not want to step into that space because it costs something. Making disciples, serving others, and carrying the heart of Christ is not always convenient or easy. But this is exactly what we are called to do.
We may not all be preachers, pastors or have a platform, but every one of us can love, encourage, pray, serve, give, listen, and reflect Christ in the places God has planted us. The world does not need more lukewarm or shallow Christians. It needs people genuinely filled with the love of God and led by the Holy Spirit.
This morning, as I was reading Matthew 13:20–23 and reflecting on the Parable of the Sower, I couldn’t help but connect it back to the harvest. If the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, then maybe the question is not only, “Where are the workers?” but also, “What seeds are we sowing?”
To sum it up, there was seed that fell along the path. The birds come and eat the seed immediately. This represents those who hear the Word of God but reject it almost immediately or don’t understand it.
Then there was seed that fell onto rocky ground, the Word of God is received but is it is shallow, more of an emotion. This person represents one who begins to follow God but as soon as a trial or some form of tribulation hits they lose faith and fall away.
Then there was seed thrown among thorns. The seed takes root and the plant may even grow but it doesn’t flourish because the thorns overcome it. These are the people who hear the Word and receive it with joy, but the worries of life, the love of the world, money, distractions, and selfish desires eventually choke out the Word.
Finally, there was seed thrown on good ground. This is the person who hears God’s Word, accepts it, obeys it, and produces fruit. These are the people that produce abundant fruit no matter what circumstances they face, whether blessing or trial, they stand firm and obey God.
Are we going to be a people who are obedient to God, who pour into His Kingdom and labor for the harvest? Or are we going to be on fire only for a season, moved by emotion, but when the feeling fades, step back and say, “Let someone else do it”?
Let us be people of the Lord…. People who are rooted, obedient, and fruitful. Who share His gospel, speaking truth in love. People who walk in the Spirit and help reap the harvest that the Lord has called us to reach.
How are these two things connected? Friend, because in order to labor for the harvest, we must first allow the Word of God to take deep root in us.
