April 3 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Galatians 6:7–8).

Devotional

Obviously, there can be no harvest where no seed has been sown. But it is equally true that a moral harvest is coming in each individual life—a future reaping of present sowing. This life is the seed-time of the life that is to come. The future of one's destiny gets its features and form from the present of one's character. The spring does not more certainly deepen into summer, nor the summer fade into autumn, nor the autumn pale into winter, nor the winter bloom again into spring, than does our present probation merge into our future destiny, carrying with it its fixed principles, its unchanged habits, and its tremendous account.

So, my dear reader, what are you sowing? I wish this question to have all the earnestness and force of a personal appeal. Again I ask, with what seed are you sowing for the future?

If you are unconverted, then nothing is more true than that you are sowing to the flesh! You may be rigidly moral, deeply intellectual, profoundly learned, exquisitely refined, outwardly religious, generous, and amiable, and yet all the while you are but sowing to the flesh, and not to the Spirit. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6), and nothing but flesh.

"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). It is spiritual and divine, heavenly and holy. And, what is more, it is imperishable. No lowly seed of divine truth, or grace, or love, or service, sown in this present life of suffering and toil, shall ever be lost. All other things shall perish. The world with its loveliness and love, the "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," (1 John 2:16 KJV), all shall pass away and vanish. But not one seed of grace implanted in a heart by the Holy Spirit shall ever perish. Once restored to a soul, the divine image shall never again be obliterated. Nothing done by Jesus, or for Jesus—no sin laid down, no cross taken up, no holiness cultivated, no labor wrought, no service done, no cup of cold water given—nothing, the fruit of love to God and of faith in Jesus Christ, shall ever be lost.

Oh, who does not earnestly desire that in his heart and life he may be sowing the good incorruptible seed, that will—though long buried and concealed—yield a golden harvest of future joy, bliss, and glory?

Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home:
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
for our wants to be supplied:
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God's own field,
fruit unto his praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
unto joy or sorrow grown:
first the blade, and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take his harvest home;
from his field shall in that day
all offences purge away;
give his angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast,
but the fruitful ears to store
in his garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come
to thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin;
there for ever purified,
in thy presence to abide:
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

(Henry Alford, 1844, text of 1867)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.