Grace in Galatians Part 173 – Why You’re Still Sowing But Nothing Is Growing
Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”
Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”
1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”
Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Scripture we will study today:
Galatians 6:9 NIV“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9 TPT“And don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming!”
Supporting scriptures:
Mark 4:3-8 NIV“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Psalm 126:5-6 NKJV“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
1 Kings 19:4-8 NIV“While he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Setting the Stage:
Over the last several messages, we have stayed anchored in Galatians 6:9 on purpose. Today I want to go back to it again because as I was praying yesterday, the Lord said we were not done with this verse. Up to now, we have mostly talked about weariness as a drain on your strength, your desire, or your consistency. But Paul is not only talking about quitting. He is talking about planting. The Passion Translation says it plainly: do not become weary in planting good seeds. So here is the fresh angle: weariness not only threatens whether you will last long enough to reap. It also threatens the quality of your planting while you wait. It can make you scatter seed like someone who expects the ground to disappoint you. It can also cause you to hold back from sowing, or to sow with a guarded heart. That is not the same as rest. That is fear dressed up as wisdom. Let’s talk about it.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Weariness Impacts Your Energy Level AND Your Sowing Posture.
The whole earth operates on a system of sowing and reaping. We’ve already made it very clear that your life is the grand sum total of your decisions and actions, so if there’s something that causes you to sow negativity, the consequences will also negatively affect your life!
Weariness trains you to sow defensively. It’s not that you stop sowing; it’s just that you sow with half of your heart prepared for disappointment. You start giving like you are paying a bill you resent. You start serving with a heart tainted with bitterness. You start loving people like you are protecting yourself from being let down again. That is how weariness corrupts the sowing. The actions may still look Christian on the outside, but the spirit behind them has shifted from faith to self-protection.
How this applies to you:
— Weariness does not only tempt you to quit. It tempts you to sow small, tight, and cynical while you still show up. Pay attention to this. You don’t want to sow with tired hands and a closed heart.
— Fear-motivated sowing always looks for the exit before you even enter. You keep one foot out of the field because you are bracing for another letdown. Faith-motivated sowing plants like the outcome is God’s job, not yours to control. And you live with an expectation of manifestation.
— It’s not that many Christians are lazy. It’s just that they are wounded. And wounded people can still obey, but their obedience can become mechanical. God is not impressed by motion without trust. He wants your seed and your heart.
— When you catch yourself saying, “I will do it, but I am not expecting much,” that is not humility. That is weariness that you are dressing up as “realism.” I have heard many Christians say, “I’m just trying to be real,” and what they are really doing is operating outside of faith.
— Grace does not shame you for being tired. Grace repositions you. It reminds you why you started planting in the first place: because God spoke, because He is good, and because His promise is not powered by your mood.
— In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, discover that God is not only renewing your strength. He is correcting your posture so you can sow like someone who knows IT’S ALREADY DONE in Christ, even while you are still waiting for the manifestation of it!
2. Jesus Warned Us About Hearts Like Thorny Ground.
In Mark chapter 4, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. A farmer went out to scatter seed. Some seed fell on the path. Some fell on rocky ground. Some fell among thorns. Some fell on good soil. This is not the same parable we focused on when we talked about the seed growing underground in Part 170. That was a different picture in the same chapter. This parable is about how the heart receives the word. And Jesus is blunt. The seed among thorns is choked. Why? Because of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things. That is weariness with a full agenda.
How this applies to you:
— Thorny ground can look busy and responsible on the outside. But your heart is crowded, and the things you have growing alongside the seed of God’s Word are CHOKING it out before it produces a harvest.
— If you are constantly sowing while panicking, your heart is not good soil. You are thorny ground in that moment. Panic is a weed.
— The good soil in the parable is not perfect people. It is just people with honest, receptive, and uncluttered hearts. That is available to you under grace.
— In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, discover that the goal is not to impress God with your hustle. The goal is to receive and release His Word until your life looks like a harvest field, not a traffic jam.
— In the parable, the same sower sowed the same seed into four different types of soil and got four different types of results. The problem was not with the sower; the problem was not with the seed; the problem was with the soil. As you head into this day, make sure you check your heart. We must be good ground to allow the word of God to produce the harvest He wants us to have in this season.
3. God’s Word Does Not Return Empty, and Tears Do Not Cancel Your Seed.
Isaiah 55:10-11 compares God’s word to rain that always completes its assignment. It waters the earth. It causes growth. It does not return empty. That is your anchor when weariness tries to tell you that your sowing is pointless. To be clear, God’s Word does not lose power just because you are tired. Now add Psalm 126. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. That is not poetry for drama. That is a real field. Real seed. Real weeping. And still a real harvest. Tears mean pain. Tears do not mean you are sowing wrong. They mean you are sowing while hurting. The wrong kind of weariness makes you stop scattering. The right kind of honesty makes you cry while you still open your hand and release seed anyway. If you can continue to sow in faith, even with tears in your eyes, the harvest is still coming.
How this applies to you:
— If God’s Word never returns void, then your job is to keep speaking it, sowing it, and standing on it even when your feelings have not caught up with your heart.
— Some of the strongest sowing you will ever do will be through tears. Do not apologize for that. Just refuse to let tears become your excuse to close your hand.
— Isaiah 55 is a mercy reminder. You are not generating harvest by stress. You are cooperating with a Word that accomplishes what God sent it to accomplish. God watches over His word to perform it, whether you are in pain or not. The only thing that can keep you from the harvest is giving up, caving in and quitting; walking away and turning your faith switch to the off position. Don’t let that be you!
— Psalm 126 says the one who goes forth weeping, bearing seed, will come back with sheaves. That means the harvest can include joy that is greater than the pain of the planting.
— In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, discover that your Father is not asking you to pretend you are not weary. He is asking you to sow from His promise anyway, because His Word still works when your heart is hurting. Just don’t let the pain of your heart cause you to stop believing for a harvest.
4. Elijah Wanted to Die, and God Answered With a Meal.
1 Kings chapter 19 is one of the most honest passages in the Bible. Elijah had seen God move. He controlled the weather with a prayer. He called down fire from heaven. He outran chariots. And then he found himself under a tree, asking God to end his life. Read that again. This is not a weak believer. This is a hero who grew weary. And God’s first response was not a theological beatdown. An angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” Bread. Water. Rest. Then more bread and water, because the journey was too much for him. God knew that Elijah needed rest. He needed his strength to be restored. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is eat, sleep, and let God strengthen you for the next leg. That is grace. I did not throw Elijah away. God actually promoted him and called him home to heaven. Elijah is one of the only two men in history to not die. But there was a moment in his life where he wanted to die because he grew weary.
My point here is that God wants to get you back into a healthy sowing posture. You cannot scatter seed in faith while you are starving on the inside and pretending you are fine.
How this applies to you:
— If you are under the tree right now, God is not shocked by your honesty. He is ready to meet you with provision, not condemnation.
— Burnout is not always sin. Sometimes it is a body, a soul, and a schedule begging for the grace to recover.
— Elijah’s story proves that a down season does not erase your calling. It means you need heaven’s resources in earthly form: food, rest, presence of God, and a next step you can actually carry.
— Before Elijah took another lap of ministry, God strengthened him physically. Your spirituality is connected to your humanity. God made both.
— Some of you need permission to stop performing long enough to receive from God. Receiving is not quitting. Receiving is how you get back to healthy sowing.
— God’s first answer to Elijah’s collapse was strength for the next step, not shame for being empty. Grace restores you before it redirects and redeploys you.
— Lastly, be careful not to allow yourself to get burned out. When you’re burned out, not only do you not sow, but your heart becomes susceptible to depression and suicide. This didn’t happen to somebody who was outside of the will of God. This happened to somebody who was being used by God in a mighty way. If it could happen to Elijah, it could happen to you. Do not allow your heart to grow weary in doing what is right. And don’t stop sowing. Keep your hands open and your heart open to receive.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that Galatians 6:9 is not only about holding on. It is about planting in faith with the right heart!
I refuse to let weariness turn my obedience into self-protection. I sow from grace, not from fear!
My Father’s word does not return empty! I align my sowing with what You said, and I expect Your purpose to be accomplished!
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy! I will keep scattering seed in honesty, and I will not close my hand because I am hurting!
I clear thorny clutter! Worry will not choke Your word in my life! I make room for You to rule my heart again!
I receive Your provision when I am empty! Like Elijah, I will not reject bread, rest, and strength from You!
I have faith AND patience! I imitate those who inherit the promises! I do not lose heart!
I am living in THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, and I declare that weariness will not warp my seed! My harvest is scheduled, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! IT’S ALREADY DONE!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
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