Understanding the Waiting Process

Sowing financial seeds into God’s Kingdom is a lot different than the magic seeds sown in “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Many people think God’s principles of abundance are like the magic seeds in the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” According to that famous tale, Jack’s special seeds sprung up overnight, creating a huge beanstalk reaching far into the sky.

But real seeds don’t work that way. No one goes out to plant seeds in their garden and then returns the next day to gather a bouquet of flowers or pick enough vegetables to make a salad. Nor can you expect a fully-formed apple tree to emerge the day you plant an apple seed in the ground.

Just as it takes time to reap a harvest in nature, the same is true of our spiritual seeds. We must be willing to wait long enough for our spiritual seeds to produce the harvests we desire.

Waiting serves an important purpose, revealing our obedience and our trust in the Lord’s timing. And while we are waiting, we must water and nourish our precious seeds with love and worship, obedience to God’s Word, and an attitude of belief, expectancy, and thanksgiving.

No one said the waiting process is easy. We live in an instant world of fast food, microwave ovens, immediate gratification, and get-rich-quick schemes. However, God’s Kingdom is not like that. Although His principle of seedtime and harvest will surely bring you prosperity if you utilize it, your harvest of blessings will come in due season. In the meantime,  Paul writes, “Let us not grow weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).

Patience, My Friend

Do you want to prosper in a certain area of your life? Then patiently sow your seeds in faith, realizing that prosperity is not an event but a process.

Jesus describes this in Mark 4:28: “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.” The mature harvest doesn’t come all at once!

Friend, if you’ve taken a step of faith to plant seeds in God’s Kingdom, your harvest will come. It may not come in a dramatic windfall—one fell swoop—but it will certainly come in God’s perfect time. If you’ve done your part, you can be confident that His prosperity process will meet your every need (Philippians 4:19).

I know the waiting process can be difficult, but that’s why the Lord encourages us in His Word with great promises like these:

Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him (Isaiah 64:4 NKJV).

Those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him (Lamentations 3:25 NASB).

If you’ve been faithful to God, obeying His instructions, you can be confident your harvest is on the way. And it will be a harvest worth waiting for!