The Satisfying Bread
W. Carl Ketcherside
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This intriguing statement appears as a part of a letter devoted to raising money. It was intended to encourage those who received it to give freely of their means to help people whom they had not seen and would probably never see. Those to whom the money was to be sent were prejudiced against those who were asked to contribute. They were racially segregated, even though they were brothers in the Lord.
The apostle Paul felt that a generous gift from communities of the saints among the gentiles to help the poor among the Jewish disciples in Palestine might go far toward lessening tensions. He was a little dubious as to how the gesture might be received, and even wrote to the Romans, "Now, my brothers, I am going to ask you, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the love we bear each other in the Spirit, to stand behind me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf -- that I may not fall into the
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So much for the background which evoked the statement. I am interested in its implications in my own life. Because the apostle was writing to a people familiar with rural life, he uses language drawn from their existence to illustrate his message. After urging them to make theirs a spontaneous gift rather than one squeezed out of them by the pressure of his words, he says, "All I will say is that a poor sowing means a poor harvest, and generous sowing means a generous harvest."
This may have been a popular proverb which he was merely quoting. In any event, in those days when farmers walked through their fields scattering the seed in broadcast fashion, they had to decide whether they would sow sparsely or freely. If they sought to save and hoard their seed there would be a poor harvest, but if they dipped in the bag and cast the seed abroad in lavish fashion a generous harvest could be gathered in.
It would seem that since it was all so simple there could be no question about how to sow, but there were variable factors. Nature had to be taken into account. There might be too much rain, or a drouth, or an insect invasion. Under such circumstances it would appear that it would have been best to save the seed rather than to cast it out with such abandon. Thus, one had to have faith to really sow generously, whereas to sow miserly indicated a lack of trust or hope.
In the sharing of life's bounty we must remember that all will not always turn out as we planned. Those whom we help may be resentful and unappreciative. They may take that for which we labored and waste it or "throw it down a rathole." They may even become our enemies. So we must decide whether we are giving to try and purchase goodwill and commendation, or whether we are motivated solely by a spirit of altruism and compassion.
The peculiar thing about it is that if we sit down and try to coldly calculate in advance, we will get only a very minimal return, but if we dip down into the bag of seed spontaneously and enthusiastically and sow it with a spirit of trust, the harvest will be amazing. One cannot tell another how to give or what to give. I cannot bind a percentage upon you, nor can I reap for you. "Let everyone give as his heart tells him, neither grudgingly nor under compulsion, for God loves the man who gives cheerfully."
The harvest starts in your own heart before the planting begins. And the seed is fertilized and watered by your attitude. If you turn loose of it with grumbling reluctance or because of pressures put upon you, you have degerminated it before it leaves your hand, in so far as your own harvest is concerned. God will open up heaven to bless you only when your heart is open to receive the blessing. He sends none away empty except those who are full of themselves. When the strings of the heart are drawn taut by the hand of stinginess God cannot deposit the riches of His grace in that heart.
God gives seed to the sower. Man can plant seed but he cannot make it. God can turn that seed into bread to eat. But man cannot hoard the seed and have the bread. It is only as we are willing to turn loose of the seed which God places in our hand that we can expect a harvest. If we save the seed we lose the bread.
As it is in the realm of nature, so it is in the domain of the spirit. God will give you the seed of generosity to sow and, for the harvest, the satisfying bread of good deeds done. Many in our day are starved and emaciated within. They suffer from frustration and discontent. They grumble because they have no satisfying bread, but the reason they have none is because they have not sowed the seed of unselfish giving. There is no use waiting for your ship to come in, if you have never sent it out! Someone has said, "The man who waits for things to turn up has his eyes fixed on his toes." The risk of faith pays off!