Many of our behaviors in attempting to fulfill our God-given needs come from a strong desire of wanting and expecting immediate satisfaction.  As you know, this thinking is taught, promoted and reinforced by the world we live in.  As we are being constantly fed this philosophy, it dangerously grows to root itself into shaping or reshaping our belief system.  Our definition of contentment is when we achieve the instantaneous minimization of pain and the maximization of pleasure.  When our contentment is not met, we tend to determine our need is not satisfied.  At this point, we exhibit confusion, frustration, unhappiness, and potentially worse…unbelief.  We should ask ourselves, 

“What belief system am I sowing into?”

The bible teaches us the principle of sowing and reaping.  The harvest we are reaping today is the result of our past sowing decisions.  The secular worldview of “sowing” and “reaping” is based on selfishness.  It teaches us to “sow” into relational strategies in order to benefit ourselves; the using, manipulating and depending on others to satisfy our God given needs and do so immediately. 

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6:7-10)

Yes, our harvest could be immediate, but then again, it may not be.  More often than not it is the latter and our gratification is delayed.  Did you notice I said, “…our gratification is delayed?”  We deem the harvest to be “delayed” due to the conflict we have between our desired expected timeline versus God’s timeline.   At “the proper time” is God’s schedule, therefore, it’s never immediate or delayed.  The harvest is always at the absolute perfect moment as intended.  Trying to push it too soon to “please our flesh” could result in missing, or at best, settling for less of a harvest than what God ultimately had in store for us.  It’s naturally very easy to sow into trusting ourselves and/or others exclusively as the “means to an end”.  However, the decisions and behaviors produced out of that belief will eventually saturate our mind with stress, worry, frustration, and anger.  The noise becomes so loud from those distracting thoughts that it drowns out any attempt to hear God’s ordered steps (Proverbs 16:9; 20:24).  We end up falling into the trap of using and believing in “man’s” system as a method to achieving our contentment.

Attributes of sowing into man’s system:
Work diligently to create insincere networked relationships with a purpose of persuading them into alignment with your selfish desire.

Serving others is conditional.

Trust in yourself to make the impossible possible.

Prayer is secondary or nonexistent in your decision making.

Impatient with the lack of quick results.

Attributes of sowing into God’s system:
Seek God’s will, vision and direction through fervent continual prayer.  Create plan(s) according to the desires of your heart, but allow God to order your steps.

Remove self and submit full control to God’s process wholeheartedly.

Allow God to align the strategic relationships needed to accomplish your desires and needs.

Serve others unconditionally. 

Patiently persevere knowing and believing that in proper time you will reap the harvest.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to meditate on these attributes and how they relate to your ministry.  Determine where the majority of your behaviors are sowing into; man’s system or God’s?  Share your thoughts on how we move away from “pleasing the flesh” and more into “pleasing the spirit”?